The Subsequent Technology Has Accomplished

Regardless of as soon as seeming doomed to fail, “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology” stays among the best entry factors for brand new followers open to making an attempt out a “Trek” of their very own. The Enterprise D, with its carpet flooring, body-hugging uniforms, and a considerate, virtually philosophical mid-’90s liberal method to exploration and society is displaying its age, however it stays much less of a time bounce than the unique sequence. Whereas “Deep House 9” is lastly gathering the viewers it deserves for its prescient (and higher dealt with than “Part 31”) commentary on the deeper points hiding beneath the Federation’s facade of utopia, it is nonetheless a present that rests on what “The Subsequent Technology” ready for them.

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Above all else, it is the crew that makes this present so cozy a touchdown zone. That is to not say Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) and the remainder of his adoptive household are good — because the all-powerful Q (John deLancie) might be delighted to remind us, they don’t seem to be — however they are human, in an important sense of the time period. Their errors and victories create tales we will not overlook and a bond that meant the three-season “Picard” felt like taking our older relations out for another wild trip. 

However it’s the errors we’re right here to debate at this time. Don’t fret an excessive amount of, it is all meant with love, however listed below are the worst issues the principle characters of “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology” have finished.

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Picard’s abduction and subsequent integration as Locutus, the figurehead of the Borg, is not his fault. Nobody begs to be kidnapped by the Borg, and his rescue and restoration remains to be the soul-shaking journey of a lifetime for the once-stoic Captain. But the ramifications of what Locutus did throughout “The Better of Each Worlds” rattled the Federation to the core. The Battle of Wolf 359 occurred uncomfortably near Earth, incurring over 11,000 deaths and the destruction of virtually 40 Federation vessels, and each one in every of them noticed Locutus’ face in that fireplace.

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It is Picard, nonetheless, who has to look the survivors within the face and know that they cannot assist however put the blame on him. By making a person Borg to terrorize the Federation, by protecting his face clear beneath the Borg home equipment, the injury the Borg did to Picard’s place within the universe can by no means be utterly undone.

Not solely does that monstrous legacy put him vulnerable to being stripped of all command in “The Drumhead,” Commander Benjamin Sisko personally confronts Picard along with his distaste as he takes on a reclaimed Cardassian area station, brought on by his personal private horror as a survivor of Wolf 359. Captain Liam Shaw, a lot later in season 3 of “Picard,” will drill it down in a succinct, deeply private approach in one in every of Jean-Luc Picard’s finest moments: Locutus was the one Borg so harmful that he needed to be given a reputation. It is not Picard’s fault. However it’s his to hold, till the top.

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Being the explanation a treaty fails does not sound like the top of the world for a diplomatic vessel that is aware of that, typically, them’s the breaks. However the Treaty of Algeron is a boring-sounding doc with an essential function: It is the explanation the Federation has prevented all-out battle with the Romulans for many years, with the Impartial Zone’s boundaries (largely) revered.

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In “The Pegasus,” Will Riker’s (Jonathan Frakes) former commanding officer, Erik Pressman (Terry O’Quinn, among the best performers from “LOST”), drops by to reconnect — and to nudge the Enterprise into recovering a scuttled experimental vessel. However solely Pressman and Riker know why this salvage mission is so essential: The Pegasus was put in with a prototype interphasic cloak, a tool shut sufficient to Romulan cloaking tech that it is a clear violation of the treaty. Seems the entire scenario was spicy sufficient to trigger a mutiny throughout a take a look at flight, and again then, Riker defended his captain’s harmful sport.

To say Picard is disillusioned by these revelations is a bit like listening to it out of your mother when she’s discovered your secret natural stash whilst you’re already having a nasty week, and Riker takes it fairly exhausting. However Riker is a person that learns from his errors, particularly on the subject of loyalty, and Pressman makes a giant goof when he assumes Riker remains to be on his facet. It takes rather a lot for Riker to line up in opposition to his former boss this time, and the associated fee may even be his total Federation profession. However it’s that very same loyalty that saves him ultimately. Picard is aware of what sort of individual Riker actually is at coronary heart, and it saves him from any probability of courtroom martial.

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It’s normal-trod terrain to go over the crappy approach La Forge’s (LeVar Burton, who would take youngsters via the Enterprise in a terrific “Studying Rainbow” episode) romantic life was dealt with throughout “Subsequent Technology.” It is so unhealthy that the preferred romantic ship on this sequence is between him and Knowledge (Brent Spiner), and it makes vastly extra sense, however there’s additionally no denying that La Forge’s “relationship” with a simulated model of scientist Dr. Leah Brahms (Susan Gibney) is uncomfortable to look at. It is nonetheless irritating when the present handles Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) and his anxious but objectifying holodeck fantasies solely barely higher afterward, placing a brand new spotlight on the Brahms boondoggle.

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Are we actually saying that the competent, engaging, and grounded Chief Engineer cannot handle a fundamental Tinder date? “The Subsequent Technology” does precisely that, and it doubles down on making La Forge appear like a creep when the actual Dr. Brahms visits in “Galaxy’s Little one.” Not solely does she get grossed out when assembly her fantasy model (who provides out again massages and do-it-yourself pasta), however the writers flip her into the “unhealthy man” by ultimately backing down from being rightfully upset by Geordi’s stalkerish concept of her.

In fact, Geordi’s worst hour just isn’t his fault, and there is not any good cause he ought to be consigned to historical past as one in every of sci-fi’s first identifiable incels. The writers maintain full duty for Geordi’s romantic flops, and as a lot as this subplot sucked, we’ll love our engineer bestie eternally. He actually does look cute in all that Daforge (Knowledge/La Forge) ship fanart, too.

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Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby, who co-starred within the barely prophetic — on the subject of LA fires, anyway –”Miracle Mile”) did not make out of the primary season of “Subsequent Technology,” and that is the worst factor that would’ve occurred to her and us. It is not like fandom wasn’t prepared for a troublesome but lovely younger girl that would arm wrestle a Klingon into aroused submission, since “Xena: Warrior Princess” would start airing one 12 months later. However actor Denise Crosby had a reasonably compelling cause to depart: The writers could not write ladies to save lots of their life, and he or she was pissed off with the way in which Tasha Yar’s potential growth was being left within the dumpster. By the point Crosby left, her largest second was discovering out simply how absolutely useful Knowledge was. Very useful, by the way.

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On the brilliant facet, her loss of life in “Pores and skin of Evil” was a memorable second of horror, and her departure made the writers step up their sport. Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) would each see their characters get more and more higher remedy and development over the approaching years.

Better of all, Crosby would not keep gone eternally. “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” with its alternate universe storyline, gave us an hour with the Tasha we deserved. These occasions would drop a later, even cooler shock with the bold half-Romulan commander Sela, who regarded strikingly like her mom, that alternate Tasha. Now, there’s just one final thing “Star Trek” must do to redeem Tasha Yar’s premature however comprehensible loss of life: Carry Sela again because the long-term antagonist she deserved to be.

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Worf, son of Mogh, is doing his finest. Raised by a Russian Jewish household on Earth, but taught to embrace his Klingon heritage — and that tasty prune juice — he is the primary of his individuals to face on the bridge of a Federation vessel as a member of Starfleet. However that place between two worlds places him in conditions, like his need to have a “regular” Klingon relationship with a biracial Klingon girl who’s extra comfy together with her humanity than he’s. Okay’Ehleyr (Suzie Plackson) is content material to have an off-and-on affair with Worf, till she’s slain by a backstabbing Klingon in season 4. A lot to Worf’s shock and chagrin, he is left as a single dad to a son Alexander (Brian Bonsall) that he by no means knew he had.

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Worf (Michel Dorn) rapidly does what, frankly, nobody can blame him for doing, which is packing the lad off to his grandparents in Russia. It is a band-aid for a kid’s parental loneliness, and it isn’t lengthy earlier than Alexander comes again to the Enterprise. Worf goes on to fumble the child’s emotional wants for the following a number of years so badly that A: the infamously flighty Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) is his household counselor and B: the child goes via separation trauma so badly that his grownup self will resort to time journey to repair it.

The worst half is that there is not any cause for Worf to be this horrible along with his child. Actually one season earlier than, in “The Bonding,” Worf takes the orphaned, grieving youngster Jeremy (Gabriel Damon) into his home as an adoptive sibling. It is a magnificent, touching episode that showcases the sweetness and power of Klingon ritual. Worf and Alexander would not determine issues out till “Deep House 9.”

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Yeah, so, Physician Crusher banged a ghost. Nominally an “anaphasic lifeform” that was drawn to applicable chemical hyperlinks, everyone knows it was a ghost straight out of Gothic romance. Earlier than we get into that, it must be famous that Crusher was a robust, competent physician that managed to juggle her position as mom and medical knowledgeable so effectively that her gifted son, Wesley (Will Wheaton), would develop into “Star Trek”‘s model of a Time Lord. Crusher did fairly nice, general, with an outside-our-margins word that there was that bit the place she hid Picard’s son for nearly 30 years till it triggered one other large Borg ruckus in season 3 of “Picard.”

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Again to the ghost: “Sub Rosa” is a season 7 episode that sees Crusher go to House Scotland to see off her grandmother’s funeral and putter across the household property. However the property hides a secret: Crusher’s meemaw had a 34-year-old boy toy. Good for her. However, the boy toy, who is known as Ronin in a legal offense to all sexy fanfic, is an immortal spirit that rapidly latches onto Beverly and manipulates her into loving him.

There’s numerous this in “Subsequent Technology.” Feminine crew member reaches out and receives emotional and sexual abuse as an alternative. In the event you slapped “Sub Rosa” and the season 2 episode “The Little one” the place Troi is assaulted and offers delivery to a child in two days flat, you’d have the notorious “Avengers” #200 storyline the place Carol Danvers goes via the above whereas all her buddies assume it is romantic. Not like in “Subsequent Technology,” Danvers arms everybody their asses in a powerful verbal beatdown a number of years later. The very best “Trek” bought was the time Teri Garr despatched Gene Roddenberry packing for being a lech.

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Counselor Troi (Marina Spirits) wasn’t given many alternatives to “fail” in her position. Half-Betazed and skilled to use empathy and rationality to her work, she was typically relegated to facet tales. She did not get a correct glow up till grouchy Admiral Jellico (Ronny Cox) bought her out of that skintight gown and into an actual uniform in “Better of Each Worlds.” That gave her an aura of competency and management that she wanted, badly. Not that it at all times caught, and Deanna’s worst hour got here 10 episodes after Jellico handled her just like the officer she was purported to be, in “The Loss.”

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The Enterprise is caught on a knot of two-dimensional life types as in the event that they have been a very bizarre whale pod because the episode opens. It is a acquainted episode cycle of trying to make contact, let engineering do one thing cool, and everybody will get away protected, however Troi will get a particular twist: her empathic powers briefly disappear, and god forbid she will get emotional about what’s, for her, a world that is been reshaped by incapacity.

It is a life change so fast and intense that it shakes her religion in herself, and he or she almost walks away from the lifetime of labor she’s constructed. Certain, her buddies attempt to reassure her with combined outcomes — Geordi, blind from delivery, someway fumbles the dialog and will get her to run off the bridge — and all of it seems okay ultimately. However the episode is tough, because the dialog it tries to have concerning the emotional and exhaustive points counselors, particularly ladies, face of their line of labor, is not dealt with effectively, and the fandom by no means bought off Troi’s again.

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One cannot fault Knowledge for making an attempt to make the most effective of what little household he has. Dr. Soong (Brent Spiner) was distant, bizarre, and possibly may’ve slammed beers with “Futurama” common Dr. Farnsworth, and his prototype brother, Lore (additionally Spiner, simply one other of a fraction of his particular person roles on “Star Trek”), is egocentric and boastful. There’s numerous tales about households giving their troubled addict youngster another probability despite the fact that they know it is going to finish in one other spherical of failed remedy, and but, the love is there, together with the desperation. That is Knowledge’s relationship with Lore in a nutshell. However in “The Descent,” it is Knowledge that is develop into an addict — on the feelings Lore’s managed to supply him.

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Drunk on having the ability to really feel the way in which people do, and along with his morality sublimated by Lore’s management, Knowledge activates his Starfleet buddies sooner than you may say “money bar at your buddy’s vacation spot wedding ceremony,” and he strains up with Lore’s new Borg military. As ever, it seems simply fantastic ultimately. A Borg riot and Knowledge’s restored morality packages put paid to Lore’s newest gig.

But this is not a decision that happened due to Knowledge’s inside purity. Knowledge was going to hold his buddies out to dry like human jerky, and no person goes, “Hey, possibly we must always discuss this for some time?” Like “Better of Each Worlds,” there was a chance right here to speak about Knowledge’s real love, loyalty, and flaws, however it merely by no means comes up once more — till Season 3 of “Picard,” anyway, the place he outgames Lore another time, on his personal phrases.

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No, the issue with Wesley Crusher is not that he existed. He is fantastic. You guys are simply imply. However a minimum of you are not as imply because the unnamed studio exec that seemingly helped torpedo Wheaton’s movie profession by screwing along with his schedule. It is that when he lastly bought his probability to use to Starfleet, he bent to look strain like a twig beneath Dwayne Johnson’s butt (severely, go take a look at that trailer for “The Smashing Machine”) and bought a man killed.

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Season 5’s “The First Responsibility” is a solidly okay episode with some nice moments, together with one in every of Picard’s finest light-your-ass-on-fire monologues, by which he drills into Wesley that an officer’s first responsibility is to the reality. The context is that Picard is visiting Starfleet Academy to ship graduation, solely to seek out out that Enterprise protege Wesley is in the midst of an inquiry over a deadly accident. Ultimately the reality comes out: Wesley’s flight workforce conspired to develop into the Cool Children by pulling off a maneuver so harmful that it was banned over a century in the past. In so doing, they realized the exhausting approach why it was banned, because the final time it managed to kill the entire workforce. As a substitute, it units Wesley and two different cadets again a 12 months, and the smarmy Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill) would get expelled. Wesley’s fortunate that is all he suffered.

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Actor Diana Muldar excelled at cold-hearted however environment friendly ladies who bought the job finished, and when Gates McFadden took off for a bit, it certain seemed like a enjoyable concept to herald somebody who may ship that hard-nosed Dr. McCoy (Deforest Kelly) type. Sadly, everybody “forgot” that when a girl does it, they are not handled like they’re cool and environment friendly, they’re only a slur I am not going to kind. Nonetheless, her abrasive relationship with Knowledge made for an attention-grabbing dynamic, and he or she even managed to show him a couple of issues about humility when she egged him into dueling the annoyingly good Kolrami in “Peak Efficiency.”

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Sadly, her type of prodding Knowledge into proving herself triggered a wee little incident within the holodeck. Accurately (however artlessly) mentioning that there was no problem within the cute Sherlock Holmes LARPs Knowledge and Geordi have been enjoying gave Knowledge the brilliant concept to amplify the scenario into one thing that may intellectually problem him. The end result was a Professor Moriarty (performed by Daniel Davis of “The Nanny”) like none different, one who promptly and politely took Pulaski hostage, and who would ultimately be capable to hijack the whole ship from inside his little bottle world. It is not technically Pulaski’s fault all of this occurred, however it’s a rad mistake, really, and one that will develop into one hell of a callback close to the top of “Picard.”

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