Reviews

And no, the title was not intended as a war pun but I have mixed feelings about this episode. I get the need for it, they need to ramp up the war as the show approaches the end. My main issue with episode is Dax and the obvious goof in writing, I guess in all the excitement being near the end, no one noticed that the same character (Kellin) asked Dax the exact same question to which Dax gives almost the same response. Around the 12 min mark, Kellin asks Dax if she's an engineer and Dax says "No.. but Tobin, one of my previous hosts, was." Then around the 27 minute mark, Kellin again asks, "Are you sure you're not an engineer?" and Dax responds; "In nine lives, I've been a little of everything." Either Kellin is suffering from amnesia and forgets asking her, or no one noticed they basically wrote the same thing twice which is a pretty sloppy writing mistake. Although I very much like Nicole de Boen, I felt the character Dax should have just been killed off once and for all. The way they re-explain just what it means to be a Trill, I mean, we already know, so why do we have to sit and listen to her explain it again? Was this just to fill time? Was this just for the benefit of people who are just tuning into the show? The way they forcefully inject her character into the Alternate Universe storyline. I never liked that storyline to begin with. Though there may be some truth to the whole multiverse concept, I find it highly unlikely that all these people would know all of each other, all being in the same place. This is an important turning point for Nog's character but I usually just skip this episode, the conversation between Kellin and Dax is just too lengthy and cringy for me.

Here we are in 2023 and I gotta say shows from the 80s and 90s are still my favorite. I've lost count how many times I've watched all forms of Star Trek and this episode makes my top 10 list when it comes to TNG.

When I read a lot of reviews, people seem to want more wars, more explosions etc etc, but to that I say "yawn". This is SCIENCE fiction and the episodes that revolve around a scientific premise interest me more than another battle with the Romulans or something, though Romulans are heavily involved and as per their usual ways, try to kill the people that helped them. Nice people..

Like others, I'll ignore the plot holes by pointing out that they don't fall through the floors. Although it's been established that starships, instead of rotating to generate artificial gravity, have "gravimetric plating", would still not prevent them from falling through. From what I know of "phasing", much like how The Flash can run through walls, all matter vibrates at the same frequency (including air) and for this instance, Ro and La Forge are vibrating at a different frequency so technically would have fell through the floor and suffocated instantly since air would pass through them as well. We did see one instance where an ensign fell through then got stuck halfway in the floor in a similar phasing situation but I guess they forgot about that.

But we don't care!! That's where the FICTION part comes into play! This was a fun episode and honestly it was kind of funny to see Geordie eating his words. I distinctively remember a conversation between him, O'Brian and Barkley about how safe transporters are and here he is involved in a transporter accident!

I still want to know what Riker was going to say about Ro! But I have a feeling it would have been something to do with how hard of a time he's been giving her. That phaser-shot to the head was well deserved!! You go, Ro! Also one of the funnier moments.

One other highlight for me was Data. I've always enjoyed the friendship between Geordie and Data, and it was a nice touch for Geordie to hear Data's thoughts when asking Worf's opinion for their memorial.

One of the better episodes of S5! (But not better than 'The Inner Light'!!)

** Spoilers, Spoilers! You've been warned! **

As the title states, this is one of my favorite TNG episodes, after a fast-paced two part episode with the Borg, clearly everyone needed a break, including our fearless leader, Jean-Luc! He didn't even put up a fight this time! I like these episodes with down-time and love it or hate it, this episode contains a lot of Jean-Luc's backstory.

I saw a comment; "what's with the French with British accents?". I know there's a lot of Trekkies who do not like the new Star Trek: Picard, but it is explained why they have British accents so give it a watch. (However, no mention of Robert in STP.. wth)

The best scene hands-down is seeing the very proper and uptight Picard rolling around in the mud, followed by a drunked French duet with his brother, then trying to explain to Robert's wife exactly how the living room ended up so dirty! "I fell down and then he fell down and then we both fell down..." after we took out a row of grapes lol. It's nice to see these sides of Picard that we don't offend get to see.

I know this comment is going to catch a lot of flak but I've never liked Worf, most of the time anyways. I've always felt he should just embrace being unique, a Klingon raised by humans, rather than embarrassed by it, he goes to great lengths to be an ordinary Klingon, yet not so much that he'd leave Starfleet. With that said, I liked this Worf-story! His parents are great and the story about his trip to the principal's office was hilarious! "Tell me he's an only child!" Nope! He is not! Guinan talking to his parents about his new found love of prune juice which will carry over to his DS9 days!

And Wesley had an important moment, meeting his dad face-to-face, sort of, for the first time that he'll really remember. I know everyone hates Wesley Crusher, I myself like him, but am very confused by this and later episodes. His father makes a comment about Wesley following in his footsteps and in that moment, Wesley glances down, looking at his own Starfleet uniform and he seems proud! And yet he later rebels, saying he was tired of living up to everyone's expectations of him, I don't understand the sudden change of heart.

The one thing I found annoying was Troi butting her nose into everyone's business. I get that she is the counselor but my gosh lady, everything she had to say was negative! Is that such a good idea going home? Maybe we should open old wounds for Wesley! She's always been one of my least favorite characters as well.

All in all though, great episode!

This is one of my favorite episodes, I like when shows somewhat break the 4th wall like this, spoofing existing shows like 2 and a Half Men and Butch Cassidy. As long as it's done well, though I felt they did a few too many dream sequences, how often do people dream about TV shows. But I like seeing shows stepping outside their box, using different filming styles such as sitcoms or westerns or horror flicks. On a side note, I dig the ax/shotgun cane, where can I get one?

My next issue is with the people who watch this show who don't seem to get it at all. House and Cuddy were never going to be a lasting thing, House burns everything he touches. The two main taglines of the show: Everyone lies and no one changes. These two lines sum up House's personality, he will never change, not even for Cuddy. He gave it a good shot, but ultimately, people are who they are and pretty much the message David Shore has tried to convey from the start. We see this with how he distances himself from Cuddy the rest of the episode and how he relapses and becomes dependent on pills again. He runs (limps?) toward medical problems but he always runs from and deflects personal problems. The true question about their relationship was what kind of crazy boiling point it would eventually reach, which it definitely does. Though neither character is gay, ultimately it is Wilson who is House's true soul mate and House is the type who can really only handle one relationship, intimate or otherwise.

Finally!! The Maximals and Predictions have returned!!! I'll keep this review short and sweet as I only really have two complaints about it so far. As a kid, I was obsessed with Beast Wars/Beasties (whichever version, same show, different title) as well as transformers in the 80s. If anyone watched the original Beast Wars, they tried to marry the two stories with the Maximals coming across the Ark in one episode, finding the Autobots unconscious inside. So I'm happy to see somewhat of an extension to that however, leading to my first issue with the show is the time line is incorrect. So the Golden Discs had been discovered AFTER Dinobot had changed sides and had become a Maximal yet in this show he's back as a Predicon (even though Dinobot is eventually killed and resurrected as a Predicon again.) None of the characters have gone through their transmetal transformation process. If anyone also remembers Optimus Primal's last form which was a result of him joining Optimus Prime's spark with his own, it's a little unclear if this new version is after that point.

Would have also been nice if they could have gotten at least one of the original voices behind the characters, its so hard to get into this with all new voices doing characters I had grown up with but overall still an awesome show!