“The Inner Light” (5×25)
This episode is an undeniably strong science fiction story that also really highlights the limitations of strictly episodic storytelling. It’s another example of a civilization...
“Thine Own Self” (7×16)
I liked this one a lot. The main plot, with a damaged Data inadvertently exposing a village to radiation, is the stronger of the two....
“Conundrum” (5×14)
The premise of the episode, with the entire crew of the Enterprise suffering from amnesia, is an engine to explore who these people are innately...
“Homeward” (7×13)
There is a lot to like about this episode, but it is fatally undermined by what I feel is the writers’ misunderstanding of the purpose...
“Time’s Arrow” (5×26 & 6×01)
Tonight’s two-parter closed out season 5 and kicked off season 6. It’s a wonderfully timey-wimey story that takes full advantage of having two characters that...
“The Pegasus” (7×12)
I thought a lot about DS9 while watching this episode, which gets steadily darker after the (actually pretty effective) humor surrounding “Captain Picard Day”. It’s...
“Disaster” (5×05)
The only thing I remembered about this episode from when it originally aired is Picard leading the children in singing “Frère Jacques” to keep them...
“Booby Trap” (3×06) & “Galaxy’s Child” (4×16)
Tonight I watched two connected episodes that aired a season apart. In “Booby Trap”, a deadly snare left over from an ancient and cataclysmic war...
“A Matter Of Time” (5×09)
This is an unconventional sort of time travel episode, because only the guest star is doing the time traveling. And because he’s coming from the...
“Darmok” (5×02)
All languages around the world, even languages that developed completely independently of one another, share certain commonalities. In Nicaragua, Deaf students with no previous language...