FULL DISCUSSION - Star Trek TNG S3E5 - The Bonding

I think the whole point of having the alien character was to give Ron Moore a way to pitch his view on grief against Gene's. Gene believed that by the 24th century, we wouldn't have grief anymore. He saw it as something bad that we would overcome. A form of suffering that we would no longer have to deal with just like hunger and poverty. So of course we have an alien character here who thinks the solution to Jeremy losing his mother is to just make the grief go away. Grief is suffering, grief is bad. Why put a child through that? Grief should just be gone just the way that Gene wanted it to be. Except that's not how it works, nor should it, and Ron Moore shows us exactly why. The entire episode is a presentation to convince the alien that grief is an essential part of human nature. It's not going to ever just go away. We need it to heal, and to live life. If we don't grief, we stay stuck in a fantasy never accepting reality. Finally at the end when everyone fully lets out the grieving process for the alien to see, the alien finally sees why the crew resisted her "help". She finally understands at least a little, that grief is positive and necessary, and mortal beings need it. This concept eluded her because her race is immortal, so they never had to deal with death. And apparently it convinced Gene enough as well to let the episode make it on the air. Though at that point, I'm not sure how much influence he still had.

I believe the scene with worf and troi was in the computer core but I might be off

I'm probably one of the few who ever noticed....but one of the scenes where they showed the planets surface early into the episode was actually orbital images of Mars. I always thought it was a bit of a cheap rip off.

Gene was there until the end of season 4, although slowly diminishing.

Would you like to see more cats in TNG?

"No one is alone on the Enterprise. " chills...

I thought that I hated this episode, and skipped the uncut reaction and just watched the discussion... only to realize that this wasn't the episode I was thinking of. Now I have to go watch the episode with your reaction :) This is one of the lower rated episodes of the season, as you pointed out in the reaction, so the fact that you guys still loved it is great.

I was just thinking about a change to they story that might have been a bit more satisfying with regards to the weight of the presence of the alien energy being. They could have had the alien being succeed in transporting the boy to the surface, and the end scene in the fantasy earth home could be set up there. The aliens are very forceful in preventing his rescue to the point where the enterprise has to consider taking aggressive action to get him back. But before they do, Picard and Troi beam down to try to negotiate his release, and eventually call for Worf & Wesley. They could show the alien also showing some acknowledgement that their attempt to give him back his mother would take from him so much more. This could only require a few short scenes to establish the threat posed, a plan for their aggressive response if necessary, and would give Riker something to do on the bridge while Picard is handling the situation personally.

One of these discussions will end with the cat tearing down the greenscreen- I can feel it.

Rob Reiner was able to pull a great performance out of Wil Wheaton in STAND BY ME.

I was 20 when I saw this originally. Now that I'm a Marriage and Family therapist in real life, I'd never noticed how Troi actually does FAMILY therapy in this. Very interesting.

You guys seem to love this episode and most of us think it's okay, pretty good. I think I can pin down the reason. The things you guys loved about this episode essentially become a standard part of the show going forward and quite frankly done a lot better. So as a result, it doesn't jump off the page at us and you guys haven't yet seen how much better it can get yet.

Idk if a holo mom would have worked “as well. Because while a mom recreation” could help provide closure. It wouldn’t offer him the chance to escape his grief and live in the past long term like an Alien entity can.

I think that the implicit resolution with the energy being was that it recognized that humans can fill in the missing spaces when a loved one passes, and that the crew of the Enterprise were naturally involved in his grieving and healing process. And that an illusion of his mother was taking so much more away from him than the loss he already experienced.

This episode is overshadowed by what is yet to come. It was like as if the writers heard that the audiences liked character episodes and said, "f@#$!ng hold my beer. Buckle up buttercup."

I think the scene with Worf and Troi was in the security station/office which is Worf's department. Could have even been in proximity to the brig. That is where Worf would likely spend his on duty hours when not on a bridge watch.

I think these commercials make the show look lame as hell

On original viewing, I liked it. seeing it again and hearing your views I love it and as we all grow up can relate to it more in some shape or form. Thank you ! When will you increase your S3 reactions to more than 1 a week? ;) Can't wait for more in this EPIC season!

I gave this a 4/10 prior to rewatching it with you guys. I think watching it originally as a kid, the emotional stuff was just nothing to me. I was into Star Trek for the scifi, and the scifi elements of this one suck. I have seen it since then, of course, but because of that original impression, I never really took it seriously or watched with a more critical eye. After rewatching with you, on the whole, I liked and disliked the same things as you guys, but the dislikes for me were much stronger. The random creature from the planet disguised as an 80's mom is... really bad. You guys were kind of willing to ignore it. Me, not so much. But I will upgrade my rating to a 7/10 on the strength of the first half, which is something I never recognized before.

You defenitely have to do a Top 10 list at the end of this season. 5 would not be enough.

The interesting thing about media is that you bring your personal experiences with you as you watch and interpret them. This was always a skipped episode for me because I've been watching TNG since childhood, and this episode was "boring" because it was just a bunch of people talking. Now I'm 38 and have lost several people, including my mom and my wife, and I have two grieving children. Because of this new set of experiences, I take much more out of this episode because these are the kinds of conversations I've now had to have with family and my children. My daughter was 14 and my son was 11 at the time my wife died. As Alex said, this episode is now therapy. I wouldn't call it one of my favorites, as I think there are other character-focused moments that are stronger, both in TNG and especially in DS9 (Alex, just wait for that one), but I have a newfound respect for this episode.

Hahaha. Sorry Josh. 😂😂

Also real quick because it came up, Wil Wheaton was born in 1972, so at the start of Season 3 airing in 1989 he was actually 17. From what I can tell, Wesley is always Wil's actual age.

the boy actor is the evil kid in Robocop 2 :) he is such a jerk in that movie, that its hard to feel sorry for him

Whaaaaat? That boy actor is Littlefoot??? .... never knew ...

I cannot begin to express how happy it makes me to see your appreciation of Gates McFadden. Again, no disrespect to Diana Muldaur, but Gates and Crusher just really click with TNG, and her more natural acting style helps add believability to the sci-fi theatrics.

I'll be the annoying nit-picker and point out that calico cats are mostly all female. Jeremy refers to Patches as "he". Calico males are extremely rare genetic anomalies.

The rage quit 🤣🤣🤣

I might be about to blow your minds, but BACK IN MY DAY people just really didn't care about spoilers as much as they do now. Obviously if a movie had a surprise ending, people wouldn't want to be told that in advance, but this thing of the trailer "giving away" the plot of a single TV episode... we would have said "Yeah, that's the point of it." I remember me and my film school friends in the year 2000 complaining when trailers started coming out that didn't even tell you what the dang movie was about! How were we supposed to know whether we wanted to watch it? I think what changed was the internet and specifically social media. It became so easy to get accidentally spoiled on every single detail that people overreacted and swung back the other way. Now it's a cardinal sin to say anything at all and I know people who refuse to watch trailers for anything.

Now you have a good grasp of why we all hold Season 3 on wards in such high regard.

Great discussion. You two are really hitting your stride! Great job! There is a Vulcan ritual that marks this level of attainment but you would not be able to pronounce it. 😉 🖖

Love good character episodes like this one.

Honestly I appreciate splitting up episodes where you feel the need, and if you wanted to make that standard procedure I think it'd actually be a productive change.

As for not knowing any writers' names besides DC Fontana and Melinda Snodgrass (and now Ron Moore), don't worry-- I'm sure as you progress thru TNG and then DS9 there'll be several names you come to recognize.

I am discovering that episodes the fans like are ones you find okay and the stuff the fans find okay, you like a lot. I have no problem with that. I just need to start lowering my expectations when it comes to my favorite upcoming episodes. Though I know there are a few coming up where we will agree to their overwhelming awesomeness. Love to hear your opinions, though!

The weird mystery grid room where Worf and Troi had their scene is a Computer Server Access Room. You saw one 4 episodes ago in "Evolution," the episode with the nanites. Why are Worf and Troi having their scene there? No reason other than for the visual, I would guess -- the patterned walls and overall framing make it feel like a cage, which is very appropriate to Worf's state of mind in that moment.

Fun fact talking about Gates McFadden at the 6 minute mark, she originally thought her character was supposed to be comic relief because in her audition they were having her read lines from The Naked Now😂

Great reaction and discussion. I always loved this episode because of the entity being benevolent. It was a refreshing change for me. If the entity was malicious, the survival of the kid would have taken priority. Basically, nobody would care how he feels as long as he survives and he can deal with emotions later. In this case the entity wasn’t malicious, and was trying to help. So they were able to focus on the kid’s emotions and find ways to discuss death and grief. In the end, by convincing the entity, they also helped the kid to start to deal with his trauma. Thanks :)

By the end, Roddenberry was communicating through his “lawyer” Leonard Maizlish. There was a lot of suspicion that Maizlish was offering his own personal opinions.

If you like character-driven episodes, then you're in for a good ride.

38:34 I like that, your thoughts are fresh right after watching it. If you're going to keep releasing the second weekly episode on Sunday, then best to discuss after each one! 👍

I get wanting as much of the character stuff as possible but dude! 😅 There's kinda got to be some kind of external driving force that prompts the characters to all be in the same room and pouring out feelings that they'd probably internalize otherwise. The Marla apparition may not be the main draw of the episode but it certainly didn't bring the episode down. It did it's job. It got everyone in the room and talking. I too felt feelings while watching along. Glad you guys liked this one. In fact I'd say this is another great one that you guys have elevated even higher with the TA treatment

28:42 Y'all are addicted to the FEELS! 🙂

What you say about the 'pause!' is so accurate and imo part of what was missing in s1 and s2. S3 is so much more willing to take its eyes off the story to see how these characters are handling it, it doesn't assume we all have the memory of goldfish

Thanks for reading my take! Gene was indeed still around, but with his health on the decline, he was taking less of an active role, with Berman and Piller taking a much larger active role. In one anecdote from Moore, he had a meeting with Gene, where Gene basically tore down his script. Moore left the meeting a bit devastated, but then Piller basically told him "don't worry about it, we'll deal with Gene, you keep writing what you're writing" and whichever script it was, it basically went through as written.

A great episode, especially for those of us who have lost a parent. The only mistake is not giving Jeremy a few moments to speak to the projection and say goodbye to his mother. Something I am sure many of us would like to have done in our own lives.

23:40 Yep! Spot on, Josh! "Where No One Has Gone Before"

I've never thought that this episode was worth anything. But since the last time I sat through it my dad has died and it hits me a lot different now I really enjoyed it

Yeah, yeah, I was wrong. I DID honestly mix it up with a different episode. (Paramount Plus' descriptions are not very good or complete, or even accurate much of the time. The other half the time they spoil the episode's twist.) Even if I'd gotten it right, I probably would have underestimated your response, but I might have been a bit more enthused about it.

The only real big flaw in this episode for me is it doesn't seem very believable that they would not have been able to detect those "mines" on the planet. A minor flaw was the Troi was anxious (if not horrified) long before Aster was killed.

12:00 Snarky response: How would Sean Connery on Jeopardy! say "THERAPY" ?

Next time on STARRR trekthegeneration*coughcoughsputter*

#DataHasEmotions

Now we're cooking with gas

42 minutes? Wow, I like it