Vim Fuego posted:

The writers hosed up by having her go so hard against Data, an established and well liked character. But on rewatching you can see that was only emphasized for like 3 episodes and even that aspect paid off with a nice character growth episode when data assisted her on the planet of lethal rapid aging. She was also a good counterpart to Picard, because she was a woman roughly his age and status.

redgubbinz posted:

I still crack up every time I think of Riker replicating a new trombone every time he plays, then ramming it into the replicator sideways with his foot when he's done with it.

Xenocides posted:

The plan with Pulaski was, as you said, to put someone on the ship that could tell off Picard. They eventually used Guinan in that role. With Data she was supposed to be McCoy to his Spock and be against his goals. McCoy was against Spock denying his human side and Pulaski was against Data seeking to become human when he was not. She was supposed to see it as a quixotic quest to emulate humanity when he should have been figuring out what it means to be and excel as an Android, not that she saw him as a piece of equipment. It would have made for a nice contrast to the rest of the crew telling him he would one day be a real boy. The writers screwed it up and she came across as an rear end in a top hat at first.

Then you look to the movie Generations when Data got his emotions and became a real boy and you realize Pulaski was right. Data with emotions is an annoying clown.

MA-Horus posted:

I'm very confused with this "Walk of a striptease queen" thing. Who was that? Diana Muldaur?

Chomp8645 posted:

Also, imo it was kind of weird and very against the spirit of Trek that the way Data gains emotions is by inserting a chip.

No growth as a person, no inner discovery. Found a chip that Soong left behind or whatever.

Aristide posted:

S6 of TNG starts off strong with a Barclay and O'Brian episode. I know he's suppose to be Geordi BUT WORSE, but ya know what? I'd be leary of transporting too. This isn't even the first time a character has been anxious about it.

MA-Horus posted:

I'm very confused with this "Walk of a striptease queen" thing. Who was that? Diana Muldaur?

The Thread posted:

This dum fukken game.

Hipster_Doofus posted:

I apologize to everyone for ever bringing it up.

alexandriao posted:

Yep. The cameo of McCoy in the first episode was iffy about transporting too.

I went and watched Flowers For Algernon The Nth Degree and it's a very good episode but I feel disappointed that simply increasing his intelligence solved his social anxiety. Like it's an intellectual problem you can magically solve rather than being a set of fears and worries that just don't go away, that you can't stop thinking about.

Although maybe he medicated himself a cure, but if that's the case why the hell doesn't he use that afterwards? Or maybe all it does is cure his social anxiety and he naturally is that intelligent.

The clumsiness that the character has is a nice touch to reinforce the fact that he's living in his own world. I also find it amusing that people find him improving himself concerning. Like the staff's reaction is essentially just "No, stay in your place".

Baronjutter posted:

alexandriao posted:

The interrogater was the fifth light because he hid his love for Picard and wanted to see him as a light in his heart

dudeness posted:

*touching Picards chest*

The fifth light was inside you all along.

Chomp8645 posted:

The Inner Light

Ritznit posted:

Better put than I could have done it, Epicurius.


Meanwhile on Voyager, Janeway takes three struggling crew members who don't feel like they belong onto an away mission and of course stuff goes wrong and of course it's all okay in the end. This could have been a pretty neat character focused episode, a kind of Lower Decks deal - But the entire affair is just another excuse for Janeway to be needlessly applauded. She acts at some super deep, insightful guide to the anxiety-addled crew folks and undeservedly gets all the credit. If Janeway wasn't such an awful mess of a character, so many episodes would at least be decent.

I will forever be salty that the one female captain we've had in all of Star Trek so far is such an awful mix of 90s-style "strong female character" issues, unambitious writing and Voyager's general direction. I'm still pissed that Discovery made it look like it was going to have a female captain, only to pull some kind of bait-and-switch in the promo material. Not saying that's the only one of Discovery's flaws but both shows have real issues with having really bullheaded ideas about what makes Trek good and how writing strong characters works, choosing to play it overly safe and ending up being way more unenjoyable for it.

Oyak posted:

I am working my way through TNG for the first time.. Just saw the episode where Riker falls for the transgender alien who is a really good pilot. Two thoughts: I kind of wish the actor playing the alien had been male, because that REALLY would have pushed the limits during the grand speech where the alien "comes out" as female. Also, Riker is p much the ship's man whore as far as I can tell.

I guess it's a little sad that the plea for LGBT acceptance in this episode still feels pretty current.