Three Guys and a Trek - Trekking through Star Trek: The Next Generation

The guys cover Episode 17 of Season 1 of The Next Generation, Home Soil. The episode deals with more lofty sci-fi topics, like what it means to be "life," and does a pretty good job, despite some rough edges. We get the description of humans as "ugly bags if mostly water" and a possible play on the ET theme towards the end. The concept of The Black Swan is also discussed.

The guys cover Episode 16 of Season 1 of The Next Generation, When the Bough Breaks. This episode plays around with some fun sci-fi tropes and does a pretty good job with it. Children, technology, and the ozone layer...Oh my! Picard gets to show off his fondness for kids.

The guys cover Episode 15 of Season 1 of The Next Generation, Too Short a Season. This was...not the greatest episode. Disjointed from obvious tension from Roddenberry's creative control, this episode goes no where interesting. It does have some terrible old person make-up going for it, however.

The guys cover Episode 14 of Season 1 of The Next Generation, 11001001. One of the better episodes of the series so far, with some fun scenes on the Holodeck, some Jazz music (we assume), and a planet of Borg that aren't Borg.

The guys cover Episode 13 of Season 1 of The Next Generation, Angel One, is a confusing mess. Not only is the B plot haphazard, the main plot wants to make a point about gender roles, but doesn't quite know what point to make. This is exacerbated by our own confusing times, far different than the culture even 30 years ago.

The guys cover Episode 12 of Season 1 of The Next Generation, Datalore, where Brent Spiner gets to stretch his muscles, and essentially play three different characters: Data, Lore, and Lore pretending to be Data. "Shut up, Wesley!" makes its glorious introduction to the series. We talk about the mystery of Data, which is great, and the laziness of the B plot, which was great but silly.

The guys cover Episode 10 of Season 1 of The Next Generation, The Last Goodbye. The holodeck becomes dangerous and existential questions are raised about the possible fates of artificially created sentient beings. Picard and Crusher turn up the heat.

The guys cover Episode 10 of Season 1 of The Next Generation, Haven. Troi is being forced to marry...a pretty nice guy, actually. But Wyatt, her betrothed, has another destiny, so no one really has a choice ultimately. We are subject to the whims of fate.

The guys cover Episode 9 of Season 1 of The Next Generation, Hide and Q. Q is back and this episode had a great premise and some promising potential. But overall, it felt rushed, and danced around the edges of some of the more interesting directions it could have taken.

The guys cover Episode 8 of Season 1 of The Next Generation, The Battle. The Ferengi are back and less spastic. We go on many, many tangents, but stay on topic long enough to discuss the character of Picard.