Star Trek The Next Generation Season 5 Review Special | T7R #355 - The 7th Rule -- A Star Trek Podcast with DS9's Cirroc Lofton

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Darmock, Ensign Row, and the Outcast. Hello everybody, and welcome
to the seventh Rule was so Rock Loften.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hello, my name.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Is Ryan T. Huskin. Today we are doing a review
of all of season five. This is our season five
review special. Some people say it's the best season of
Next Generation. In fact, I think a lot of polls
put number five at number one. Let's talk all about it.
We're gonna fly through every episode at warp speed. How

(00:33):
are you Today's Sarrock.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Now, I'm doing great. I'm excited about this. This was
actually a very good season. So yes, I kind of
can see if you go for overall episodes like this
might be the one that has the most good episodes
in a season, even though there are episodes from other

(00:55):
seasons that I like a lot, maybe even some more
than others in this season. Yeah, you know, I still
think Measure of a Man I always just like, Burned
in My Head is just such a good episode.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
And and this one. Season five does have a dip,
you know, there's a there's a few in a row.
You know, it does have a dip, like a nice
little roller coaster. But so far it seems to have
the most amount of bangers, So it's kind of like, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, overall, it's it's it's you know, it's been you
know what happens is and this happened for us too
when we were doing DS nine is at some point
you're settled. You're settled, you know, there's like in the beginning,
you're getting to know the characters, You're getting to know
what the plot is going to be about. You're just

(01:47):
starting to feel things out. You're getting to know the
other actors that you're working alongside and the crew as well.
Then you know, as those kind of things break down
and you realize, oh, we're here for the long run,
which kind of hits you around season four, you know,
three or four. That's when you feel like, oh, there's
some stability to this series and we're not just gonna

(02:10):
be canceled right away. So the around season three four
is when you start to get rooted in the characters.
You really start feeling comfortable, and you can tell that
level of comfortability with these characters and their relationships with
each other.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, so let's get into it. Everybody, Please make sure
you like this video, subscribe to the channel, hit the
bell icon for notifications and if you're listening in. Gives
a five star rating and a nice review. We'd really
appreciate that, and please come visit us at Sirock's place
he lives in No, uh, he visit us on patreon
dot com Slash the seventh rule. That's Patreon dot com.

(02:45):
Slash the seventh rule to support the show and become
part of the team. We'd really appreciate that. So this season,
I'm already looking at this season five. Episode one was
Redemption Part two. Yeah, that was the Klingon Civil War.
That feels like that was three years ago already.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
I know, yeahs And that's because again, you know, we
watch shows now and it's like eight episodes in a season,
and so three seasons worth is basically what we watched
in this fifth season, you know, comparatively, when you think
about these ten season ten episode seasons and eight episode
seasons that we get nowadays. So yeah, it feels like

(03:28):
a long time ago. But Redemption Part two, this was
Ronald Moore, Yeah, David Carson. So they hit us with
David Carson is directing, So they got a really great
director for this. They got Ronald Moore, who's, you know,
arguably the best writer of you know, Star Trek, one
of them.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
At least, and he actually I would say he's on
the mount Rushmore of Star Trek. Let's just we should
do that one of these days, just have like a
mount Rushmore of Star Trek writers. But we had a
great guest for this one. Can we even call her
a guest? She's really part of the team. It's Denise Crosby.
So it was great to have her back for that, yeah,
because her character Sela was in it. But then we

(04:10):
moved on to Darmock. Darmock is a fantastic favorite. Like people,
you've been hearing about this one since the DS nine
days even.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, I loved this episode. This is another favorite of mine.
So look, they started with Redemption part two. They gave
us Tony Todd, they gave us Sydney's Crosby, and then
we come here to Darmock. And I thought the guest
star in this was fantastic that the actor who played
you know the cation, right, is that what he was? All?

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Right?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Oh oh oh. Paul Winfield, yes, who played to Marion
played Darmok or no Captain Dathon, the Tamerian.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Paul Winfield was a phenomenal in this episode. And this
is one of those episodes that once you see it,
you can't Yeah, it leaves a burning impression. You're in
your mind. So yes, uh, Darmock and Jalado.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
It's there forever. Yeah, everybody quotes it forever. Uh. Then
we had Ensign Rowe. We were we were just introduced
to Ensign Road this season.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
I know what character, very good character started off with
a bang as far as what do you mean, No,
I meant the traction that you know we felt between
are the chemistry opposite Riker's character, you know, and so
there was a lot of conflict there. We also know

(05:47):
that she's the blueprint for what eventually became major Kirast character,
and we got to give them the oppositor and her
portrayal of that. So yeah, Anson Rowe, Well, can you
say she was fantastic? Leslandau, Michael Pillar Rick Berman wrote it,
less directed it, and you know, I thought she was
fantastic on screen. She's beautiful to watch and you can

(06:09):
see why this character would be a character you would
want to bring back in some form of fashion in
a reiteration of the show, much like what you got
with Discovery and how they spend off Georgio's character. When
a character comes on and it is so impactful on
a series, they think about ways in which, you know,

(06:32):
they can bring that character back and use them, use
them again, you know. Unfortunately, to get into and Row,
we've got to now visitor, which I am, you know,
totally satisfied.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay, yeah with that, and then next we had Silicon
Avatar or Silicone Avatar that was what the crystalline entity
returning that one is. I don't want to call it
a less memorable episode, but it it just kind of
continues on from like the first season, so it's easily

(07:05):
you can easily forget that it's in the fifth season
because it feels like an early season episode.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, this this doesn't have done much of a memorable
impact on me. Let's see that I have. Guest actor
was excellent.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
I don't even remember, uh perhaps what I was, but yeah,
I don't know, doctor mar Yeah, it just.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
I don't know. It just didn't jump out at me
as something that it's blew.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, it's one of those episodes where if you ask
a Star Trek fan, hey remember Silicon Avatar, they go,
oh yeah, and you say, which season's that? End, they'll
be like, ooh, honestly, I'm reading my notes and I
still don't know what it's about.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Really, it's trying to yeah, oh this silicon avatar trying
to communicate with them and all this stuff.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, okay, but it's a it's it's a chill one.
It's good. You watch it, you enjoy it. It's just
a good meal right there. It's comfort food. Then we
had Disaster. That is a very memorable episode to me.
We had a very memorable guest, mister Dan Curry joined
us because he did all these visual effects for This
is one that I remember really well because of everybody

(08:16):
had their groupings, everybody had their moments and their scenes.
They did a really good job of that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
This is also a Ronald Moore episode, so you know
he comes back in there he is. We also had
Gabriel Beaumont directing this. If I'm not mistaken, this is
a moment where they used Data's head and they plugged
into his head. Right. Yeah, they have a datahead drawing here.
So yeah, that's what sticks out Data's head on a platter.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
It's not the last time we had Data's head in
an episode. In fact, they did that like basically twice
in one season. Another thing that happened twice in one season.
No spoilers, but Will Wheaton joined us for episode six
The Game. If you remember that one, boy, that one
was that's another memorable one. Sometimes you'll see people costplaying

(09:12):
with you know, the game. And then of course we
had the very memorable Ashley Judd playing Robin Leffler, who
is kind of like Wesley's friend you'll recall.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, he was lucky for that. Good on him.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
You got a seventy year old and he got Ashley Judd.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, you know, big and tick away from that is
just you know, Will Wheaton being gracious enough to join
us and share his experience working with Ashley on that
and you know, reminiscing on those days. I do have
that drawing of that kind of cylindrical cone thing where

(09:54):
you have to put the disk into cone and yeah,
so that did stand out to me. This was a
great episode. We also had, if I'm not mistaken, the
Nurse of Gad was sighting in this episode.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yes, love her.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
We had booth beat in this episode as well. I
think there was a booth beat mentioned I not mistaken.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Let me see, was it yeah, there was a some
yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah right the car
talking to Crusher about it.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah yeah, so yeah, you know, uh, Will Wheaton's My
big takeaway from this is Will Wheaton say, you mean
to suck disc episode?

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Oh? Yes? How could I forget that? Everybody was sucking
discs the whole episode and Wesley Crusher was like, no,
I don't want to suck. And then even his girlfriend
finally gave in and was like, dude, you got to
try it though. It's really fun to.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
That was that was the big high.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Oh good old will we a champ?

Speaker 2 (11:01):
By the way, so far, you know, really only one
episode that didn't jump jump out, which was Silico Navatar
you know, that's Jerry Taylor a cliff Bowl episode. But
so far, you know, we've got we're six episodes in
and I like five of them.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Well not only do we like them, they're just very memorable,
like you like, they stick with you forever, just like
this next one. This was boy, this was huge. When
it happened, we go from Beverly Crusher's son to Leonard
Nimoy's son. Adam Nemoy joined Us for Unification Part one
to tell us what it was like being on set

(11:38):
when his dad playing Spock, returned to T for TNG.
When I remember when I saw Spock say and you
have found him Captain Piccarter, I was like, what, yeah,
just like everybody did you know?

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, this is a memorable episode. This is you know,
Jerry Taylor, teleoplay, Rick Burman and Michael Piler obviously another
you know, leaving their impact on the show with this
one as well. I thought this was a great idea
because you do want to have tie in from one
show to the other. You do want to have, you know,

(12:13):
characters tie in, and this is perfect for that. And
we've seen Spock's father before, so I thought that was
another good tie in as well.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yes, seric Yeah, and then really easy tie in two
episode eight, which was Unification Part two. Not a ton
to talk about their very memorable episode, very memorable two parter.
Next Generation has some legendary two parters. I remember, actually

(12:43):
a handful of them just in the seventh season. One
of my favorite episodes two parters. I don't want to
give it away, but is in season seven a whole
bunch of them. So I remember buying those little box
sets where it's like you can get Unification part one
and part two for twenty nine ninety five or something.
You're like, what a deal because apart they're nineteen ninety five.

(13:05):
But anyway, that was really cool.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, and you know what, we also got to see
a performance for Denise which she gets to be a
villain because she played Sela in the in these two
parter And it's always fun to get a chance to
when you're a character that people like and love and
we accept you as somebody who's the nice person, to
just be able to flip the points sometimes get to,

(13:29):
you know, tap into the villain, inner villain in your performance.
And I thought she did a great job with that.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
It's fun to tap into the villain. But I snuck
ahead and I kind of chuckled when I saw the
next one a matter of time was episode nine. That
was when this guy played by Max Headroom or the
guy that plays Max Headroom, he was like coming back
in time, but really he was further back in time
that stole somebody ship from further up in time and

(13:58):
then came back and was stealing stuff. That actually, to
me is a very memorable episode because it had that
twist at the end that I was definitely not. We
knew there was something going on with this guy, but
I didn't think it's a guy from actually our past,
you know, or their past.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah. I didn't have much of a B story in
this episode. It was you know, that was the main thing.
You know. I do remember the thing that jumped up
to me the most was that little watch that he had,
a ring watch thing where he was like talking into
this thing that he flipped open. I thought, how cool
was that?

Speaker 1 (14:34):
So yeah, hit some poison in there too.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, I had a little twist.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
So okay, what was next? Oh boy, new ground. Let
me just read this one to remind us Jordie can
barely curtail his enthusiasm at being able to test out
a new theory of transportation as Wharf's mother boards the
Enterprise with his son and news that Warfe's earthly parents

(15:02):
can no longer care for him. So this was the
big Alexander comes home to Roost episode and war favorite
Oh did you see that I sent you? Yeah, because
actually I'm just gonna show everybody this here.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
This a happy Father's Day gift or something.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Yeah, it was like, I mean, We've a lot of
people have seen this before. I'm sure, but it's so funny.
So it's a Guynan talking to Warf. She says Happy
Father's Day, Wharf, and he says, what I'm not. Oh yeah, thanks,
good old wharf.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah, that basically sums up this episode. Uh, you know,
the Rishikos and everybody trying to push off, you know,
WARF's mom trying to basically drop off his kid and saying, look,
we can't do this anymore. And you know that's when
we see Alexander and that's another character that we really
get more of in this season as well. This is

(15:58):
this is just one thing after another and so yes,
you know I also remember its skeletor war.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yes, you know that's what they kind of did. It
seemed like, now, remember we basically lost Wesley Crusher as
a main character, right, he used to be a main character,
And it seemed like in the second season they added
Geynan to be pretty main but then she just kind
of wasn't around. You know, she was probably busy winning

(16:28):
Emmys or whatever, and so she was around sporadically. And
then remember in the first and second season, they kept
trying to introduce new characters like the ben Zeit guy,
Mordoc or Ensign Mendon, and then they brought in doctor
Salar for one episode and she never came back. But
now they're getting better at this, right. They brought an
Alexander and we've seen him a few times. They brought

(16:50):
an Ensign Row. We've seen her a bunch of times,
you know. So now and now we're seeing more of Gynan.
So now it's like we have the core seven, but
we definitely have some recurring character curs. Uh Barkley, we've
seen him a couple of times too, you know. So
that's what I like about these later seasons.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
I put Alexander on that list too. You know, I
know you're not the most fond of it.

Speaker 5 (17:14):
But what.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah, he's definitely there.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, yeah, So you know that's part of the whole,
Like I said, world building for these guys. You know,
we see the extend the extended characters that are interconnected.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
And I think Keiko has been only in one or
two episodes. She's been mentioned a couple other times, but
she really gets her recurring character roles in Deep Phase nine.
I think we've seen her once or twice. I think
it's twice, right, once when O'Brien was marrying her, and
then once when in disaster, you know, when she's giving birth,

(17:56):
like that's it. Like they're like, okay, your job is
to get Mary, and then another episode of your job
is to give birth and she's like, can I cook
and clean to In the third episode, bro geez, give
me something to work with here.

Speaker 5 (18:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
Anyway, Episode eleven was hero worship. So hero Worship was
when Data rescues that orphan kid, Timothy, and Timothy starts
to emulate Data. I remember Data starts combing his hair
with two combs for some weird reason. Does that scene?

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (18:28):
Yeah, not the.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Greatest episode for me. It was okay, though, because there
was some comedy in there. There was definitely you know
that that boy was good at imitating Data. I remember
the daycare and then putting you know, this whole little
thing together as like Roman policy and looking thing. But
this episode was directed by Patrick Stewart, so this was,

(18:52):
by not mistaken one of his first directing episodes.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
I think it was very first yeah, first or second?

Speaker 2 (19:00):
First or second? Right?

Speaker 1 (19:02):
All right? Well what was next after?

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Boy? Then there was violations. Everybody's favorite violations. That's one
that you just kind of watch it and you're just
trying to get through it because it's not uh, it's
where this guy kind of like violates Deanna tro He's

(19:24):
got like this mind thing and you know, like and
he's pretending to be other people, getting violent with people
and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah. Yeah, he's like he's like getting in your mind.
And it was like kind of like a sexual violation episode.
It wasn't that, you know, it was kind of traumatic
to watch. It's you know, it leaves a bad feeling
when you when you feel you know what it's trying

(19:56):
to make you feel. Yeah, I wasn't wasn't my favorite.
I can say that. Yeah, he got a six point
two on IMDb.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
I can agree that it wasn't your favorite. But uh,
but then up next we had The master Piece Society,
just reaching the midway point of the season already, and
we had the Masterpiece Society. We had a very special guest,
our friend, our pal, doctor Mohammed Nor because there was

(20:27):
all kinds of biology stuff. I don't know how we
could have gotten through it without him, because we had
so many questions. We're like, this is really interesting, but
can you dumb it down for us? At least that's
how I felt. I'm like, can you explain it in
a way which he does so well, which is he
still explains it in some complicated fashion, but for some reason,
he says it in a language that my brain can grasp,
and I feel smarter. He makes me feel smart listening

(20:50):
to him, because I'm like, yeah, I get it, bro,
I get it. Well, I'm with you. He's great.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah. And the basic theme behind this one was some
kind of genetic selection in which they're looking for perfection
and they're trying to achieve perfection amongst their society. I
remember one of the offensive things that lines that stood
out to me was when the guy looked at Jordie
and he aims, since, you know, I'm sorry, I mean,

(21:19):
you know, I know you're embarrassed by your ability disability?

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Yeah, his eyes in and then.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
You know, he said, if you were born here or
we would have discarded you, you wouldn't you know, you
wouldn't have value to us. And that's where he became
the problem solver at the end. And it was like,
remember the guy that you would have thrown.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Away, killed, saved your life, saved your planet. So what
would that have said about your planet? Nothing? You'd be gone. No,
and that's great and that's a very Star Trek kind
of thing to do. We're gonna take our break right here.
But the next episode, because we're right at the midway point.
The next episode not only was it our five hundredth

(22:03):
episode review five hundred every single week, sometimes twice No
five o's, but also we had a gigantic guest joining us.
It was a first time guest for us, and we
were super excited to stick around everybody. He was number

(22:23):
one in our hearts. We'll be right back on the
Seventh Rule. Hi there, everybody. Welcome back to the Seventh
Rule with sarrock lofton. Hello, man, he is cool. I
tell you what today he told me I had a
cool shirt on and I felt like I should like
go buy a lottery ticket or something. I'm like, I'm

(22:44):
the coolest guy ever. Now, Hey, I like that. Thanks.
It's just a Warrior's final shirt. You know, everybody, but
you know, and then we got sidetracked talking about how
the NBA and the NFL have good fashion style. It's
really cool. Anyway, here are the trivioids of the week.
There are no trivioids this week because we are doing
our season five reviews special. Up next is season five

(23:06):
episode fourteen, one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek ever, Conundrum,
and we had an incredible first time guest, mister Jonathan Frakes.
Remember Patrick Stewart had his directorial debut on something I
would consider as a good directorial debut. Give him something easy,

(23:27):
not a ton of action, not a ton of anything,
just something to get his feet wet, something to kind
of like test out the waters and work out the kinks.
Jonathan Frakes. They gave him Conundrum, and he went gangbusters
on crazy shots and upside downs and angles and he
was incredible. What a beautifully directed episode, and a star

(23:49):
was born.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Basically, Yeah, this is the one where he hooks up
with rollerin right, If I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
That's why it's his Facevorite episode two.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, and then she had the line where she says, uh,
you don't strike me as a man who needs a
holidack program to have a good Yeah. Yeah, that was
the opening line right there. Yeah, it was very It
was an absolute pleasure to have Jonathan frank Son, you know,

(24:24):
you know, he was definitely a pleasure, you know, one
of the most if not the most prolific director in
Star Trek certainly as far as longevity and you know,
the scope and breadth of shows that he's covered different series.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
I mean, yeah, he's just in every series. It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah. So he has, you know, his his finger on
the pulse of what it means to be a Star
Trek director, actor, and essentially what the series is about.
So I would say it was a true honor to
have him on. I did like to see him when
he kind of hooked up with Rod Laying because we

(25:07):
obviously I failt that, you know, connection was there?

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, no, it's really good connection. It's really smarter the
writers to identify that.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah. Yeah, so this was this was easy for me.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Brilliant episode, brilliantly written, brilliantly directed, and like I said before,
it was one of the very first episodes I'd ever seen.
So I was like, who is that guy? I don't
remember seeing him, but that was like, I guess it's
just another one of these characters that I just didn't
because it was only like the third episode or second episode,
So I was like, I guess you just wasn't in
the previous episode, which was perfect. So I was along

(25:42):
for the ride. And then we had episode fifteen was
Power play Boy. That was that was the one where
Marina Curtis broke her cocksix. Marina Curtis fell on her
jumped back onto her button, broke her cocksix and apparently
when she want the one time she wanted to do

(26:02):
her own stunt, she broke the cock six And that's
the story I believe. Anyway, The point is that was
the one where the O'Brien had something to do finally
other than being in the transporter room. What fun good
good for him.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, sorry, poor Marina. You know I remember that stunt too.
She flew back in the turbolift right or something, and she.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Flew back on Yeah, on the exactly she got zap,
flew back. She apparently she wanted to do her own stunts.
They said, all right, go for it, and she did
a great but she broke her you.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Know, yeah, well that's better than sucking disc contious. Yeah,
so this was This was not that, but this was
also a David Livingston episode. So you know, David's the
other most prolific director. Yeah, the other most prolific director.
So you know, you're always going to get some good

(26:57):
stuff with him. Brandon Braga, Maurice Hurley, Paul Rubin.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Yeah, yeah, Maurice Hurley was a weird name to see
in the fifth season. That was surprising. But another weird
name we had, Oh I can't hear you, Oh sorry,
Season five, episode sixteen, ethics had to clear my throat there, yep. Yeah,

(27:25):
there's a lot of allergies out in La everybody. And
this was when we had that rogue doctor. She was
like an expert, but and I think it was for Wharf, right, Yeah,
and she was an expert in her field, but you know,
you don't get to be an expert in a field
without taking a few risks. The problem is Beverly's like, yeah,
but taking a risk on someone's life not necessarily something

(27:48):
I want to do.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yes, I remember that this is warf Wharf episode. I
think he was paralyzed or something to that degree, and
he wanted to kill himself because he felt useless. And
this was like an experimental thing that she was trying
to do on him, and the idea of the ethics
involved was basically the center of the storyline. I did

(28:16):
think that this episode had some really good close up,
some good moments in there. Yeah, and this was a
Chip Chalmers episode, which I enjoyed working with Chip Chalmers.
I thought it was fun.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
M hey, you know what else was fun? The next
episode was basically, let me make sure I'm not skipping ahead, right.
This next episode was basically I might be a top
three episode for me ever and tng. It's the episode

(28:47):
that I introduced people to Star Trek with. If somebody's
never seen Star Trek before, I say, here's one episode.
Watch it if you like it. You like Star Trek
And that episode is Cause and Effect starring Frasier and
you liked it, right?

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Oh yeah, that's the next one. I'm sorry, did I skip?

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Oh no, no, no, no, I'm so sorry. I skipped the
outcast that's right on our three thousand. Oh man, I
was so excited about that one. Oh no, the outcast.
That was a good one.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
You sent me up with that, okay? Yeah, that gust
was good. They were doing the Federation day, uh, founding
that a warrior does not let a friend face danger alone. Yeah,
I remember this one. You know it was okay. We
had Soren and Riker with a long kiss.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
Rikers like equal opportunity. Man, he is an equal opportunity ambassador.
This guy he puts the ambassador anyway. But now let's
talk about cause and effects.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Now come.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
A beautiful episode, just brilliant. Every time I see it,
it's more and more brilliant to me, and I believe
Jonathan Frakes also directed this one.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, this is a Brandon Brago written episode. Jonathan Frakes
directed it. I love this episode. This is where this
is one of those, you know, when we have time episodes.
Some people don't like the temporal time loop stuff because
they just think it doesn't you know, science out or

(30:36):
the math doesn't work on you know, you being alive
and also seeing yourself in the past or whatever the
math is on that. But I enjoyed this one a
lot because it really showed them paying attention to the
idea that they were in this cause ole time loop
and they started to pick up on you know, poker

(30:58):
hands and and and reading different you know, being able
to have like a deja vu feeling like hey, wait
a minute, this is about to happen. I know what's
about to happen. So I thought that was a great episode.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
It's kind of a beverly episode and correction This was
the one that was actually Jonathan Frakes's first episode. The
previous one when he was a guest, was directed by
Les Landau, I believe. But this was the one where
they said, all right, we'll give you your first episode
and it's going to be a doozy, and he just
destroyed it. I remember when he like would get the
close ups at the right time, just at someone's reaction

(31:31):
or in mid sentence. At one point, Riiker is kind
of saying something. It's like in mid sentence. Suddenly it's
like boom, right in his face. The cameras. Just one
of the best directed episodes, one of my favorite episodes ever.
Top three, top five.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
It is a fantastic episode. But once you've seen it once,
you've seen it a thousand times.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Right Ah, he take us out and some nice and
slow that's what he says, like ten times. And the
next was the first Duty and this was a Wesley
Crusher episode. Wesley Crusher comes back to Star Trek and
Will Wheaton came back to the seventh and one. We

(32:12):
were so fortunate and grateful that he did because he
gave us some great insights. This was a very memorable
episode two for me growing up. What'd you think of it?
You loved it? Right? It was a good one.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
This was one of the best episodes for me because
it dealt with I mean, it's also for Will Whet's character, right,
because it showed him in this you know, mature light
that we finally get to see him acting and you know,
making his own mind up and covering for his friends
and having peer pressure and all of those things that

(32:48):
are come with being a young adult, you know, growing
up and trying to find your own way. I thought
this was a perfect episode. Loved the scene with him
in Picard in this episode. I thought that was fan
fantastic where the car kind of gives them the whole
I'm disappointed in the speech. It was really good. Yeah,
and yeah, this was This was one of my favorite

(33:10):
episodes of this season. And you would know a lot
about the first Duty since your father.

Speaker 6 (33:13):
Now.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, I feel like I always think of Wreck at
Ralph when I see that title, because they made a
big old deal out of Princess Pumpernickel or whatever was
Like you said, duty whatever, so and I can't help
but think that every single time I say the first Dude, Yeah,
I'm sorry. I also before we go on, I wanted

(33:34):
to point out that Robert duncan McNeil, this was where
Tom Parris was theoretically created. And every single guest star
we noticed was fantastic. The dad was great, Sido Jackson
was great, the Nova Squadron leader was great. Who was
Robert duncan McNeill. I mean, it was just they just

(33:56):
found amazing actors to fill in these roles all in
one episode. It was really cool, and.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
We also got ready, you know this this is the
pre eminent uh, this is the episode that would eventually,
you know, spin off into Red Squad.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
And I think so it's certainly very similar. I mean's
Nova Squadron Red Squad It's very obviously it's it's a
tie in there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
And the main character was arrogant and self centered and
had the same kind of bravado and thought he was
a great leader, and you know, all of those same qualities.
So I thought this was this was an excellent episode.
Definitely shout out to Robert duncan McNeil. Fo Yep. Again,
it's shining so much that he ended up getting his
own role afterwards.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
And something else similar to what Michelle Forbes did with
ensign row, but she just didn't take it. But yeah,
sometimes they say this kid's got something. Sometimes it's Jeffrey
Calms and they're like, just bring him back, just keep
bringing them.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
Back, or Mark Alaimo. Yeah, eventually we're going to get
to at some point in the season as well.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
So yeah, okay. The next one was The Cost of Living,
and our guest was Christopher Halstead. Oh, it was so
cool to get his point of view. I mean, it's
great to have people like Jonathan Frakes, but it's also
great sometimes to have somebody that was a little bit
more behind the scenes. It was a little bit more
like like a fly on the wall where he would

(35:17):
watch he would get all the makeup applied and kind
of listen into the conversation, see what's going on, kind
of take it in. And it was a very memorable
experience for him. So he was able to transfer that
over to us thirty years later. It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
And the beautiful thing about that is just like you know,
with Leonard Crowfoot, you know, when you get these kinds
of stories from people that have a genuine, once in
a lifetime changing moment on the show, that they value
those stories in a different way than somebody who's there
every day and it's just a daily grind for them,

(35:53):
so they don't have those kind of scene like if
you ask half of the cast, you're like, hey, so
tell me a funny story, they're like, I don't remember
anything funny, like you know, yeah. But but if you
ask somebody who was there for a guest star and say, hey,
do you remember anything, and they're like, yeah, I remember everything.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Direct every detail thirty five years later.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yeah, first I went to the fitting room and then
these were the lines where I rehearsed with and.

Speaker 5 (36:20):
This was the audition, and you know, they know everything
because it was such an impactful moment in life.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
And I wore my favorite green socks.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
So so yes, those are some of the best stories
that we get on the Seventh World.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
So absolutely, really great, guess really cool. Next was the
Perfect Mate, with our friend and Star Trek documentarian Dave
f Zipone joining us. I said, hey, what about a
perfect Mate, and he's like, imsen right away, you know,
like this guy knows his Star Trek. It was fun

(36:54):
to have him on this one. Was it was different
than how I remember it. I remember, honestly, I kind
of remember being.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
A little like.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Gross and that they're talking about this lady being a
perfect mate, this and that. But then when I watched
it now, I realized there was much more nuanced to it.
Like she was like the Gemhadar that yes, they are
bred for one thing, but now that they are bred
for that thing, this is truly what gives them happiness.
Like they they want to fight, they want to win,

(37:28):
they want to get back their life when they go
into war. For her, she was like, don't feel sorry
for me. This is what I want, this is who
I am, this is what I like. But then there
are also these beautiful moments with the card. It was
a very nuanced and kind of weird episode.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah. Yeah, at least it wasn't as prvy as some
of the stuff we had in the earlier seasons. Right
that there wasn't any serious violations or anything going on,
and they were really concerned about her looking to have
freedom of choice, and so I think they were protecting
her liberty in that in that way in this episode,

(38:05):
and she chose to be the way she was, so
there was you know, that debate was happening. But the
other thing that I thought was interesting was that Picard
was the person she actually bonded into right time.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
You would have thought they would be Riker and then
he would cross every boundary.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
You know.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
At least Card was cool about it.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah, Riker's still pissed about that. He's like, bro, yeah,
I know, I'm perfect.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Jonathan Brakes comes up to the writers, slams down the script.
What the hell is this? What do you? What do
you There's a typo there. I think it says Picard
by accident and then we're gonna Picard. You've had like
seventeen episodes this season. You're okay, We're only twenty episodes in.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
The next one was us. I also remember this episode,
but for different reasons. Imaginary Friend, where the girl was
going like Isabella is a bella, you know, and there
was that that girl did a great job of being
creepy though.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Oh yeah she was creepy. She was the imaginary friend
was creepy. Uh, and she was also like she was
bullying the person imagining her. The glass thing you want
is imaginary friend being a jerky.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
An imaginary bully. Yeah, he's gonna do that.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
Who are you talking to? It's like, my friend is
the bella is telling me that I need to.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
It's a bully.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
It's a bully. Yeah, this wasn't my favorite, but I
do remember, if I'm not mistaken, Gynan was this episode,
and she mentioned she kind of stole the scenes for
me with her because her softness or empathy is so
on a high level that you know when she comes
in and says, you know, I had an imaginary friend too,
and she gives her own story that.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
It was like a monster. It's like I was flying lion.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Or something exactly. That was one of the memories for
me in this But when you do the Isabella reenactment,
that just makes me hate it even more. Thank you
sure with that, it reminds me why I don't like
it that much.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
It's kind of like, do you say, you know when
you sing that song? It really reminds me how much
I hate it. But here's an episode we don't hate,
not that we hated the previous one. I Borg and
we had an awesome first time guest, mister Jonathan del
Arco Hugh himself joining us for this one. Great episode,

(40:48):
great guest. A lot of people. A lot of people
love this episode and put it at the top of
their lists.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Yeah, this was the Borg episode, right, Uh yeah, Hugh
the board was basically unassimilating or just finding his own identity.
This was a great episode.

Speaker 5 (41:09):
I thought.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
Jonathan del Arco gave a personal story about his experience
coming from Uruguay and coming here and being an actor
and you know, getting the opportunity to do this episode
and not realizing how much makeup he was he signed
himself up for as a board. But then he went

(41:32):
on to have a fantastic career and you know, he's
worked on everything under the sun. So kudos to him for,
you know, launching his career earlier on in this in
this time.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
Yeah, and it's a great episode that people love. People
talk about it all the time. People love Hugh, which
is why he came back for like I think, like
seven episodes of Picard. He helped to launch that series.
You know, he was one of these guys that came
back before everybody came back, you know, in season three,

(42:06):
he was one of the familiar faces besides Picard. He
might have been was Picard. It was seven of nine
and it was Hugh. Those were the familiar faces I
believe I can't think of any others. I mean, later
In one of the episodes we had Riker and Troy too.
I think that was season episode.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Seven, and we had Q too, right, I was trying.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
To remember if he was in the first season or not.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
I can't remember it.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
I was thinking about him too, all right.

Speaker 5 (42:34):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
Then next we had a cool one. You know, I
don't think it's ever put in anybody's like top five
or anything like that, but it's definitely one that I
liked very much. The next phase because we got Jordi
and Roe. It's just a fun, easy to follow episode,
and we get to see LeVar Burton showing off his

(42:56):
acting chops. We get to see an ensign Row episode,
not just kind of an end an episode that's called
ensign Row or one where she humps Riker, but it
was a Row and Jordi episode, and I freaking love that.
It was great.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Yeah, this is yeah, this was This was a pretty
good episode. This was when Data refers to Jeordie I
think as my best friend.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Oh yeah, and he was gonna says eulogy and he
set up this little memorial party.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yeah. Oh.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
And then Riker says, I'm gonna I'm gonna say some
stuff at Rose thing and the cards like and Rose like,
what what do you want to say?

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Well, yeah, exactly, and then he gets up and he
starts playing the trump bone or something. All right, yeah,
this guy, this guy.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Always with his bone.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Yeah, yeah, this was a it was a pretty good episode.
David Carr directed this. Ronald Moore wrote it.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
Oh yeah, yeah. I can't say enough about the Jordian
Rose show though. I really love that very much. The
next one, Now, what's what's insane about this one is
there only two episodes left in this season, And usually

(44:24):
episodes like twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, twenty five
are kind of like the leftovers, whether it's the episodes
that they never quite you know, they would right it
and then it would sit on the back burner and
they would come back to it, and it would sit
on the back you know, it would just kind of
take a while to use and then they're like, all right,
I guess it's good enough, or I guess it's good
to go, or sometimes it was just an episode where

(44:46):
they didn't know if they were going to use it
and they're running out of ideas, you know, or whatever
it is. You know, they all have their reasons, but
a lot of times there's a little dip around those
last few episodes until the very last one. Then the
very last one they go nuts again. But this bucks
that trend in a big way because some people say
maybe more than any other episode, this is quoted as

(45:09):
people's favorite episode of Star Trek ever. Huge.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
I can see that got a nine point four on
n imdbv imdbv d m B. Yeah, this is a
great episode. Peter Allen Fields was a teleplay with Morgan
Grondel or Gendel. Yeah, I don't know what to say.

(45:42):
The man lives a lifetime, ah, you know, trying to
find well, first trying to find a way back to
where he came from and then eventually accepts that he's
there and the story about him at the end, I
think he gives a great life and he says I'm
the someone. I'm the one who finds it, you know,

(46:04):
like he has this realization that this whole thing was
designed for that for them to leave an impression on him,
so he remembers this lost, forgotten civilization. So I thought,
fantastic episode. Definitely one of the best Star Trek episodes,
episodes I've ever seen. We had Peter Lawretzon directed I never.

(46:26):
I don't really remember working with him.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
I've seen his name a bunch of times, but it
might not be in Deep Space nine.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Yeah, I don't remember working with him. Maybe he did
an episode I wasn't in, but.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
I'm gonna check super quick. Let's see he Wow, he
did know he basically Next Generation was basically his second job.
Oh wait, no, that's producing. Okay, so he's only directed
Star Trek episodes. He directed two episodes Next Generation. That

(47:00):
was this one, the Interlight, and one episode in season
seven that I'm not going to say because it's the
one I referred to earlier when I said one of
my favorites. I just checked that. I was like, oh,
that's another callback on that one. And then he also
directed an episode of Voyager season seven Lineage, but he produced.
He was a co producer consulting producer on the Next

(47:22):
Generation every single episode. That's where we saw his name.
I think I would see it in the end credits constantly,
every single Nope, oh wait, yes, he was supervising producer,
producer and consulting producer in every single episode of Deep
Space nine and every episode of Voyager basically except for

(47:42):
a few and the Star Trek.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Generation any directing Deep Space nine, he was strictly never
worked with Aim as a director.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
Right, He's always he was always behind the scenes. He
only directed three episodes to a next generation one a Voyager,
and but he was present throughout all of them.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Yeah, we have to track him down. Yeah, we can
get a hold of him for season six, you know
when we're reviewing, because he obviously has like a database.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
Or the season seven episode that he directed. That would
be really cool. Love to find him.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
We can't think we should find them, guys. And yeah,
inside takes on a lot of things. But he did
one of the greatest episodes of Star Trek, the Inner Light,
and it was well done. The planet scene stuff that
was really done, well done because you know, you used
some really nice lighting effects that stup that stupe that
he Picard was sitting in front of playing the flute,

(48:40):
the callback with the flute at the end. I mean,
this was a This was a beautiful chef's kiss of
an episode.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
I wonder if as a producer he says, hey, hey,
I know I don't usually direct, but this episode's really good.
I want to direct. I wonder if he just chose
it because of how good it was, because you got
to see all the scripts, I'm sure. So then we
move on to the last episode of season five, which
is another banger times Arrow Arrow Arrow, And it didn't

(49:11):
say part one or did it say part one? I
think you said it.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Did it did say part one?

Speaker 1 (49:15):
Yeah, it did somewhere where I saw it. It did
not say part one, and I was like, oh man,
that would be so rude if it didn't say it.
So people just didn't know it was a two parter
until it just you know, you would always get that
when you're watching TV as a kid. You're like watching
it and you're like, wait a minute, there's only seven
minutes left in this episode. They're not going to have time.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
Well, yeah, and there's no way they can figure it out.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Nowadays, nowadays we're like, great, a two parter, this is amazing,
But back then we're like, I don't want I don't
want to wait four months to find out what happens.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
That was a great one.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
I would say that this is a very good episode.
You know, this is you know, data being in the
past and figuring out whatever or whatever dimensioning he is
trying to figure his way back out here. I'm I'm
the reason I'm going through my notes again is because
and I'm now double checking in confirming it is official.

(50:11):
Les Landau directed the most episodes this season. Cliff Bowl
would be the second place, I believe, and then David Carson,
but Les Landau did the most episodes this season. He
did this fine times Zerrow episode, and he did a
few of the other episodes that I can see here,

(50:33):
you know, and said Row he did, Uh, I guess
every unification Part.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
One conundrum I think it was, Yeah, more is less man.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
Yeah, so he's uh yeah, Les Landau was definitely a conundrum,
as you said. Anyway, so he's been doing a lot
of work. This episode was great. We had Markolimo when
we got a chance to bring him back into the fold,
you know, as the poker player. Uh yeah, I mean
this is a good episode. I still haven't seen the
second part, right right, right, Well, I want to know

(51:07):
how it ends, obviously, you know, we know it keeps
data is gonna still be around. But yeah, it's just
a great season. This season has at least ten episodes
that are must rewatches, must rewatch totally, not just not

(51:27):
just to watch again, or I would watch it, but
kind of like, you should rewatch this if you're gonna
go for We.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Couldn't agree with you more and I should have said
less is more. That sounds better than more is less.
But less is more. That's a good one anyway. So
that is all twenty six episodes. We're gonna jump into
our free for all in just a second. Everybody where,
everybody's gonna have to tell us their three favorite episodes.
They're gonna be sweating. They're gonna be like, but I
can't choose, but they're gonna have to. Boy, it's gonna

(51:54):
be a tough one. So everybody at home, what are
your three favorite episodes? We're gonna talk all about it. Oh,
let's also mention our three favorite people. Here are our
three favorite people. Doctor Amrie Seagal, Eve England out in Wales,
excuse me, a vet Blackman, Tom t J. Jackson Bay

(52:16):
out in Missouri, Titus Muller, doctor Mohammad nor anil Oh Platte,
Joe Bauceerati, Mike gu doctor Stephanie Baker, Carrie Schwant, Faith Howl,
Edward Foltz, The Matt Boardman, Chris McGee Jake Barrett, Henry Unger,
Allison leech Hi, Julie Mnosfi, Jed Thompson, doctor, Susan B. Grunner,
Glenn Iverson, Dave Gregory, Chris Sternett, greg Ka Wickstrom, Cassandra G,
Chuck A, Chris Garre, Steve Case, Oliver Manali and of

(52:39):
course Jason m Oakan. That was three right, okay, all right,
we'll be right back, stick around, We'll be right back.
Everybody on the seventh Rule. Well, hi there, everybody, Welcome
back to the Seventh Roll with Sarak Lofton. This is
the Free for All with Melissa A. Lungo Hello, Hello,

(53:02):
and Jason m ok And that is a really cool background.
That was like the old Uh that's the old DVDs.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (53:12):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Faith is out on the Enterprise d Cassandra G has
her cool seven year old pillow with her always Carrie
Schwent looks like she's got every episode I see is
a pilla episode. Back there, Steve Case reminds us all
to be kind. Eve England is out in Wales. It's

(53:34):
like three in the morning for her right now. Chuck
A has his cool background as always. Alice in leech
High looks like she's got some l cars. That's pretty cool.
Chris McGee's got the uh isolinear chip, I always forget
that word. And the Matt boardman is hanging out with
the TNNG crew, all right. So Carrie said she's got

(53:57):
an average for the season of the MDB score. So
let's guess what that is. Jake Cisco guesses the average
IMDb score for season five.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
Uh see, let's see. I would say a couple bad.

Speaker 8 (54:18):
Brian's favorite was the least one with the six point zero.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
Yeah, six, I'm gonna say, like probably an eight point one,
maybe eight point two on average, something like that.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Does anybody else have any guesses that doesn't already know?
Nobody knows separate carry probably I agree with point two.

Speaker 8 (54:44):
I guess I was gonna guess eight point three.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
In the ballpark here.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Yeah, I mean I get to guess for the first
time here, and you guys are really close. But there
were some sixes if I remember correctly where there's there.
But there were a couple sixes, So I'm gonna say
seven point eight. All bets are in what's the answer? Carry?

Speaker 3 (55:13):
Ryan was the closest seven point six, Wow, but not.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
On the dot yeah, all right, see, because that's good.
We remember the good ones. Uh, non appearance mentions, none
of that knows some kind All right, let's just get
into it, Melissa Longo, you are on the hot seat,
so to speak. What are your three favorite episodes of
season five?

Speaker 8 (55:40):
So this was really hard to narrow down because there
were a ton of really great ones, but I knew
the assignment and I ran with just three, and just three.
Top three. Of course there's many more, but top three

(56:02):
is Darmock. I that's probably one of my favorite Star
Trek episodes ever, and maybe that's because I always saw
it on the syndication, so it's been burned in my brain.
But I love that episode. I love the relationship between
Picard and now I'm blanking on his name, but the

(56:23):
other dude thought they were wonderful daon. Yes.

Speaker 7 (56:31):
Number two is Unification Part one, because I think Mark
Leonard should have won an Emmy for his performance in
that episode. He was fantastic. And then again with there's
a theme here, Picard is fantastic. John Patrick Stewart is

(56:53):
a fantastic actor too, because he always plays well with others.
So I love that one. The third one is Iborg.
I just want to give you a hug every time.
That lovely Iborg.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
I thought there was more to that. Am I just
my favorite because I want to give them a hug.
That's it, Thank you very much, Melisa Longo, we have
the same background, do we? Yeah? No, no, no almost.
Jason m Oaken, do you have three favorite episode? You

(57:40):
could do three least favorite if you want.

Speaker 9 (57:43):
Oh, you can do that, and they all tend to
come with bunches, which is kind of interesting.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
It is, Melissa. You're absolutely right.

Speaker 9 (57:52):
It's hard to pick sort of something that stands out
more than the others, and you have to nail it,
you know, just kind of narrow it down to three.
But we could certainly do it, and I'm sure there's
going to be a lot of overlap. As everybody starts talking,
I'll go a little bit different at Lisa from you.
I think your choices were absolutely wonderful. I would go
with Cause and Effect because of how unusual that show was,

(58:17):
you know, certainly at the time. The one that immediately
follows that, the First Duty, which I think was wonderful
as well, and the third one is Eyeboard. Again, there
were a lot of others that stood out. There were
some clunkers obviously came sort of frankly in a row.

Speaker 10 (58:37):
Yes, yes, okay again but again, but again on average,
I think it, you know, the season of the pretty
high batting average overall.

Speaker 6 (58:52):
I think that's why we're talking about sort of the
average score being higher. Ye, a few kind of dragged
it down a little bit, but I think, you know, overall,
it's certainly enjoyable, and there are a lot of things
tick and say, well, you know, Lisa, my top three,
I just selected those that kind of work for me more.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
Maybe right now that can still change.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
Yes, and maybe next year you'll you'll have about three
new ones, three different ones in your top three. Exactly,
Thanks very much, Jason m Oakin, all right, this is
what I've been waiting for, faith, this is it. You've
been singing the praise of season five, and I think
we all have come to the light and agree with you.

(59:36):
But are there three episodes that really push it over
the edge for you?

Speaker 11 (59:41):
Well, I mean, and putting together my list, it was
definitely a top eleven like and I probably could have
thrown it more. I had to cut it somewhere. I'm
going to since I already am going to throw out
there that I agree with all of you one hundred percent.
All of your choices are also my choices. I'm go
kind of pick three that I think maybe will get

(01:00:02):
less love from the group. So Disaster is and always
has been my favorite, So that one has to be
number one. That one is probably the only true one answer.
Then I also really loved the Game. Robin Leffler is
just fabulous. I just find that episode so much fun

(01:00:25):
to watch. And then Cost of Living, I think you
guys didn't love so much, but I love Michelle Majel
Roddenberry so much. I love Waxana. I know, you know
some people can take her and leave her, but that
episode I think which she really shineded. So that's those
are my top three.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Wow, those are all dark horses. That's pretty awesome. Eighth
is like when somebody loves a band and they're like, yeah,
but I liked them back in the day when they were.

Speaker 12 (01:01:00):
Exactly Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
That's pretty awesome. Thanks very much. Met all right, Cassandra
G what about yourself? Do you have three favorites?

Speaker 13 (01:01:09):
I did?

Speaker 14 (01:01:09):
I had, of course more, and we will leave that
for things and said, but I pertually left out both
unifications because I'm like, they're the greatest of all times,
so I just left them out of my my top three.
Number one Darmock. I love that you have two leaders,
so to speak, or two captains and they're forced to communicate,

(01:01:30):
and I'm like, oh, we should probably implement that in
twenty twenty five. And then there is Iborg. And I
love the way that Guynan, even though her entire race
was basically like obliterated by the Borg, she still had
compassion for Hugh. And you know, Percarv is going through

(01:01:51):
his own PTSD at the time, and so she kind
of stepped in where Troy couldn't, And so I love that,
and that also, I think strengthen the relationship between the two.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
And the Inner Light.

Speaker 14 (01:02:05):
I love that you talk about stepping into someone else's shoes.
I mean, he stepped into someone else's life for what
a matter of minutes or hours, and it was an
entire lifetime. And I love that through that he gained
the flute at the end, and through almost every other
iteration of like future star Trek, even up to oh

(01:02:26):
my gosh, I'm getting the name right now, Lower decks,
you know, they still reference you know, like the flute,
and so that's kind of nice. But yeah, the others
I have, I will wait for the other segment.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Did you say, uh, Redemption one and two? What was
the one that you said on the best Unification? One
and two are the best ever?

Speaker 14 (01:02:48):
Well, they're like one of like the goats, you know,
like one of the of like the next generation. I
mean there's a few that really stand out, you have,
like the eyeboard unification. Letar Nimoy came back for this episode.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
It was like it was a.

Speaker 14 (01:03:01):
I'm a tang fan, so very nice.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Thank you very much, Cassandra Ge great stuff. All right,
Carrie Schwent aka Crafty Bear. You got all twenty six
episodes behind you, But which three would you point at
if somebody said, point to your top three?

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
Sadly, there is no no Q episode, so I can't
high like you, although there is a Waxano one. I
did have four full disclosure, so I had a tie
for three. So I pulled up a little random number
generator on my phone and pick picked Wi Tree in
the two. Anybody who wants to know number four if
if it comes up, we'll save that for things left

(01:03:41):
on said, but my number one is Dharmack and I
hiked that up when we reviewed it. I was looking
forward to that one when we started tang.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
It is such a fun one.

Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
I love the way Captain Dayton talks. I love, love,
love that one my number. And because I'm Queen of
the unpopular opinion, kind of like faith, I went with
the some of my favorites that not every everybody likes,
and I thoroughly and I love hair work here or worship.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
Dean is one wonderful in it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
And Data and and Timothy that that just their whole
relationship throughout the episode just tugs on the heart strings.
And those are kind of my favorite kinds. And so
the the tie, that one, that one that what broke
the tie is is disaster and and and loss endless

(01:04:35):
fun for me. We got John John Luke's progression with
hanging hanging with the kids. You've got Warf helping Cake
CAKEO CAKEO have Molly. And then of course Data is
talking heads, not sitting on a shelf. I mean it's yeah,
he is just super super super super funny in it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
It's good up, Thank you very much. Sarah and I
definitely talked about Data's head in our uh view today.

Speaker 15 (01:05:06):
We did.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
We had a conversation about it. Thank you very much.
Carrie Schwent aka Crafty Bear, Steve Case aka Joe Bugbuster.
What's up? What do you think of this season and
your top three?

Speaker 15 (01:05:22):
I really liked this season, which made it hard to
choose just three for sure. The first one came to
mind was The Inner Light, and that's why I picked
this one. Picard at the end with the flute was
just such a touching part from a character that so
often has to be all put together as the Captain,

(01:05:46):
the relationships, Picard getting to actually be Picard, not just
Picard the Captain, and in general the series makes it
clear that Picard is uncomfortable around children, but in this
episode he got to experience having a family, which I
really appreciate it. And I Borg, which several others have mentioned,

(01:06:10):
brought back the Borg themes, including making it again very
personal with Picard reliving his time as the Cutis. And
then Unification, which had Spock and Sarah so again Leonard, Nimoy,
Mark Lenard, and Seila also Denise Krouch we got to

(01:06:30):
come back for that, so it was a great episode
to rewatch. Even though I remember the the twists. There
were no surprises in this one for me, because I've
seen it a bunch of times, and sometimes when we
rewatch an episode, I don't even remember the episode. But
this one I remembered all about. And I especially cut

(01:06:53):
some references I didn't the first time though, like references
to cowboy diplomacy, and it made me think of Prayed
again and his tear down this wall in Germany's reunification
and all that played into the plot. So there were
some surprises in that, and I'll save the.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Rest great stuff. Man. I love the diversity of answers.
I thought everybody was gonna say inner Light three times,
Thank you very much. Steve Case All right up, oh man,
this is gonna be a good one here. Eve England
is out in Wales. She's never seen the Next Generation before.
She thinks it's rubbish. But what are your three least

(01:07:32):
rubbish episodes?

Speaker 16 (01:07:37):
To be honest, I wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
I don't know.

Speaker 16 (01:07:39):
I must have been in a bit of a mood
watching these, because I just didn't really enjoy me this
season that as much. I was so excited because picked
it up and there were just some howlers, which I
think just just took me out of the whole thing anyway,
but I did manage to pick three of my favorites,
so the first duty is definitely there. I just thought

(01:08:00):
that was amazing. It was just so great to have
more of a sort of impactful Wesley episode, and it
just brought in so many different sort of sorts on ethics.
I love the sort of analogies with how you could
see it with the dsmin Valiant episode. So I just
really liked I thought that that was a standalone, you know,
shining light to me in this in this season and

(01:08:22):
then the other two, so that the next one was
ens n Rowe. I just think she's fantastic and I
just love all of her episodes, and I just love
how she just brought that conflict to the crew, and
I think that sort of dynamic was great. I just
kind of wish they'd done more with that. And then
the last one is the Next Phase. I just thought
that was just such a sort of I loved how

(01:08:45):
it's really lighthearted. It was all all the great jokes
and the fact that you know that just the overarching
concept that you know, they've got data planning their funerals
and it's you know, oh, let's see what everyone says
about it is when we die, because everybody kind of
wants to know that. But then at the same time
they had that sort of deeps about you know, what
is death, what is what is the meaning of life?
And how does sort of science conflict with religion and

(01:09:06):
those conversations. I thought it was like a really good
dynamic of the sort of the light and the sort
of more sort of serious conversations there. But just I
know this is not a fourth one, but I was
just going to say that. What I did like about
this season though, is I finally met the Picard that
everybody sort of described when we started on this journey,
and I feel like Picard is the Picard, and I

(01:09:30):
grew to like him more and more as the season's progress,
and I think he really comes into his own in
this season. So I did really enjoy that sort of
the evolving character of Picard. And now we're finally there
and I actually like him, So yeah, I don't. I'm
no longer a Picard hater. From season five.

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
One of us now you have and we're all set
gauge Eve England out in Wales, Chuck as showing us
his engaged shirt, perfect timing. You're up next, Chuck A.
You've seen every episode, probably twenty to forty times. You've

(01:10:11):
got some favorites.

Speaker 17 (01:10:13):
Well, it is so hard to narrow down. People have
picked some of the ones that I was debating on,
but I think I'm gonna go with Cause and Effect.
I agree with faith with Disaster the third one. It's

(01:10:35):
really tough to choose. I guess I'll have to go
with the Next Days, a well done episode. I'm looking
at the list right now on my phone and there's
very few bad episodes, are mediocre episodes. It was really
a tough choice to narrow it down, but we'll go

(01:10:57):
with those I love, you know, like what everybody's saying,
a lot more episodes, but if I'm limited to three,
those are the three out is.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
Very nice, Thank you very much, Chuck A. He's a
TG fanatic, all right. Alison Leech Hide, you also like
Star Trek? Do you have a top three of this season?

Speaker 13 (01:11:19):
I do like Star Trek just just a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
So.

Speaker 13 (01:11:23):
One of my favorite Next Generation episodes ever is in
this season, so that's my favorite. It's power Play. I
love power Play. Any chance to watch Marina siertis just
rocket makes me really happy. And of course, you know
Data picking up a card by the throat. I mean,
it's it's fabulous. Love that episode. That's so that's my

(01:11:44):
favorite of the season. And then I also really like Conundrum.
I like them all working together to figure out who
they are, what their mission is, and how to achieve
this mission without with having limited memory, without hurting other people.

Speaker 11 (01:12:02):
Really like that.

Speaker 13 (01:12:03):
And of course, you know, there's there's nothing better than
that end scene of Riker's face when Troy and in
Row are talking to each other. So love that too,
and it's going to be a broken record. I'm going
to be the third one in a row saying the
next phase because I love that episode too. It's a
great Jordy episode, who is my favorite character, and so

(01:12:25):
seeing him in real work together because they're very different,
but they worked really well together and you could see
their friendship throughout the whole episode. And I agree, I
want to know what people would say at my funeral,
so s to do funerals before people die, you know,
celebrate them before. So those are my three favorites. That
actually wasn't too hard for me to pick, So yeah,

(01:12:48):
I'm happy with choices.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
I can't imagine people being like, all right, who's getting
their funeral this week? Well, let's see, you know, and
they just like, thanks very much, Alison Leech hide all right,
Chris McGee, Europe is a continent. Do you have three favorites?

Speaker 12 (01:13:08):
I do, but I say that I know that most
of us here count season five as their favorite, and
I certainly agree that it is fantastic. Even with the
soft underbelly episodes as Jason calls them, this season contains
a lot of magnificent episodes, especially with the standout of
the entire series in my opinion, which I'll get to
in just a moment. However, I firmly believe that the

(01:13:31):
best is yet to come in terms of seasons, specifically
next season. But perhaps we can have a more informed
of comparison when we reach the end of that season
and review it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:41):
So.

Speaker 12 (01:13:42):
Coming in at number three, Darmock an iconic and unique
take on overcoming language barriers in a world with universal translators.
Number two Cause and Effect, a fantastic time loop plot
before it was popularized by Groundhog Day. And number one,
of course, it has to be The Inner Light. Arguably

(01:14:05):
the best episode or one of the best episodes of
the Next Generation with an incredibly well written tier jerker.
Unless we forget I have some kind of count. In
season five, we had twenty two totals some kind of
or some sorts of both iboarg and times Arrow had

(01:14:28):
four mentions thirteen. Half of the entire season did not
have any some kind of what whatsoever, so that ties
it with last season. But season one still has the
most mentions at twenty nine. A memorable quote of the
season the one that characterizes the entire season, I'll go

(01:14:50):
with Wharf from New Ground saying very exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:14:58):
Oh wait, I just put the chat that the shortest
season had the most some kinds of But actually season
two was the shortest sense something.

Speaker 12 (01:15:07):
And it had only twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
Thanks very much, Chris, great stuff. Yeah, all right, the
Matt boardman, what's up? You got a top three episodes?

Speaker 18 (01:15:18):
Right, sure, sure, we'll go with that. We'll go with
that because you know, no, I love these middle seasons
of Next Gen. They're just there's so much fun and
there's so many fantastic episodes. And season five is definitely
full of some bangers, right, I don't know, I mean

(01:15:41):
these I was trying to think of like what ones do?
I what I say, But for for sure cause and
effect conundrum. I love both of those two because it's
the crew working together to figure out a mystery, right,
I don't know, They've always been favorites of mine. And
then I'd say the last one is the first duty.

(01:16:03):
And I like that one because we get introduced to
a few people, you know, we get, We get Robbie McNeil,
who goes on you know, we get to see you know, Voyager,
we get and Cincito, who.

Speaker 12 (01:16:18):
You know we may or may not see later.

Speaker 3 (01:16:19):
I don't know, maybe.

Speaker 18 (01:16:21):
Just throw it out there, but I like this idea
that you know, we watch well. I love the character
of Wesley, I do, and for so many seasons we
got to see him be this you know, he was
this problem solver, he's always saving the day. And now
he's in a situation where he done messed up and

(01:16:43):
a big time and and I enjoyed that struggle of
watching him just finally decide to let it all out
in the you know open this is what happened, you know,
because because I think there's a good life lesson to us,
all right, because there's nobody likes to get in trouble,
but there's just there's something for as much as it

(01:17:05):
sucks to get in trouble, there is something freeing about
telling the truth and being truthful about actions and stuff
like that, because despite the consequences, I would rather live
with the consequences of something that I did wrong than
live with the guilt of something I did wrong and
hoping and praying that someday nobody finds out. So I
love I love I love the moral lessons that are

(01:17:26):
taught in that And even at the end, I love
to see that Picard For as much as he was
mad at Wesley during that episode at the beginning, and
once he found out everything, you know, at the end
of it, it's like there's this increase of love toward Wesley.
It's like, you know, yeah, you're gonna have to live
with this, but we're here for you. So anyway, love
those three episodes.

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
Mm hmm, thanks very much, The Matt Boardman Sorak. It's
time for Jake's final take. Give us your final take
on the season. Give us three of your favorite episodes.
Whatever you want. You're driving, so don't hm do anything crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
Yeah, I was trying to think of three bangers, So
I narrowed down U there as a whole biker bangers, but.

Speaker 5 (01:18:19):
No, I uh, I kind of agree with everybody. I
think they all have different reasons why they stand out,
and you know, they're memorable.

Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
Uh definitely can see.

Speaker 5 (01:18:31):
The maturity and the cards growth throughout the series and
and now I think he's really come to a place
where he has a high level of wisdom and measured
empathy and he's very uh, you know, captain.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
Let's say this this season, I would.

Speaker 5 (01:18:52):
Say my favorite episodes are gonna be uh Darmack. I
think Paul Winfield might edge out the best guest star
of this season in my uble opinion. I thought he
was fantastic and that opposite to Card and it's a

(01:19:12):
lot of heavy lifting for him to do with the
language barrier and still be.

Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
Able to communicate the scenes.

Speaker 5 (01:19:20):
So fantastic job by him in that episode as well
as Sir Patrick Stewart. And then the second episode on
my list would be Cause and Effect. I like that
line that episode a lot. I was a big fan
of roundhog Day in general, but it gave us a

(01:19:45):
chance to see Jonathan Frakes's directing for the first time.
If I'm not mistaken in that began some of my
other favorite thing to do. Let's just watch his directing.
So I think it was fantastic in that episode. There
were a lot of beats there when people started to

(01:20:07):
realize that they were in this time boo that I
liked a lot. And then lastly, I think, my, you know,
last one is going to be the Interlight. I had
heard so much about it talking about it. It's one
of those things that you always hear, like Yesterday's Enterprise,

(01:20:27):
and you just hear these titles and you know they
just stick with you because the title is keep hearing
it over and over again.

Speaker 2 (01:20:36):
So I had heard Innlight and it was not what.

Speaker 5 (01:20:39):
I, I guess, was anticipating it would be about.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
So that was a surprise for me, and.

Speaker 5 (01:20:50):
I think it showed a side of the card that
I wish I could see more of, which is somebody
who is, you know, willing to engage in.

Speaker 2 (01:21:01):
Relationship with somebody.

Speaker 5 (01:21:03):
I feel like he's so stoneball that he's not willing
to let that down, that his guard down for a
while so that somebody can actually get to know the
guy underneath all the most Shakespeare books.

Speaker 2 (01:21:17):
And so I thought the inner life.

Speaker 5 (01:21:20):
Gave us a chance to see a version of what
that would look like if he actually.

Speaker 2 (01:21:27):
Forfeited his responsibilities as a.

Speaker 5 (01:21:29):
Captain and didn't put that as a priority in his
life and he had other things that were prioritize. So yeah,
that's those are my three. And then my runner up
guest star, the best guest star of the season. For me,
it's going to be Robbie Duncan McNeill. I think that

(01:21:51):
it was fantastic in forst Duty. He brought out some
really good elements of Will Wheat as well because he
was able to play off with somebody closer in age
to him, so we got to see how we'll acts
around people that hit the age closer. So that was
also a fantastic episodes.

Speaker 2 (01:22:13):
And yeah, that's I enjoyed this season a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:22:16):
I still think that there are episodes from other seasons
that would definitely be in my top tier.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
I still have Measure of.

Speaker 5 (01:22:24):
A Man is the best episode I've seen so far,
but I like all the byss.

Speaker 1 (01:22:33):
Wow, nice great stuff. That was Jake's final take, and
that's it for us, everybody, So please remember to like
this video, subscribe to the channel, hit the bell, like
on for notifications. If you're listening and give us a
five star rating and a nice review, we'd really appreciate it.
Thank you very much.

Speaker 8 (01:22:49):
Ryan's top three.

Speaker 1 (01:22:50):
Oh that's way too hard. I'm not gonna do that.
I don't know how you guys do it. I could
do two conundrum, cause and effect easy disaster, Okay, I
think that's where I am. Those are the most memorable
at least. Thank you very much to the Matt Borgman,

(01:23:12):
Chris McGee, Alison Leach, Hide, Chuck A. Eve England out
in Wales, Steve Case, Carrie Schwent, Cassandra g Faith how
Jason m Oak, and Melissa I hug Borg long ago.
For myself, Sarah, Melissa mister Aron Eisberg, thank you all
very much for taking this journey through season five. Ooh,

(01:23:34):
that's it, season five. I can't feels like just yesterday
we were doing season two.

Speaker 2 (01:23:40):
I have a question for everybody said.

Speaker 1 (01:23:43):
Ooh, yeah, I can't wait to find out what that is.
But you're gonna have to all right, but not long really,
if you're a patron, We'll see you next time, everybody,
and until then, always remember the seventh rule.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
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