PATRON TAKES - Star Trek TNG - Season 3 Episode 8
Comment on this post your ‘takes’ on this episode and we will read a few in our discussion!
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Comments (45)
this is where the Ferengi were in fact almost outrightly abandoned as adversaries became more slapstick.
You'll forget the episode by the end of the credits.
Ah yes...the exercise part....
I think is a mid-tier episode that establishes some interesting ideas and develops the Ferengi a bit more. I don’t care about the romance plot, but there’s worse episodes out there.
One of the most boring episodes in the series imo.
Some fans protested the “overly sexual” scenes with Troi, claiming that children watched Star Trek as well. Even so far as to confront Marina about it at conventions. It’s an odd take, considering how many alien women that Kirk hit on in TOS. Not to mention Remmick’s head exploding in season 1.
Oof, real mixed bag of an episode here. I always thought the wormhole stuff was cool, but Troi's romance does not work for me at all. The actor playing Ral is not nearly as compelling as the script seems to think he is. Does make it more satisfying when she calls him out at the end though.
There was this show in the 80's. I think it was called 30 minute workout. It was a half hour of beautiful girls doing aerobics in leotards. I don't know why I think of that show, right now.
They (the writers) could just have let the Ferengi become a footnote of Star Trek history, a failed experiment, but they didn't. They kept the aspects that worked and gradually reframed those that failed. Good job. That and a few significant additions to the lore is what make this otherwise bland episode worthwhile.
Question: Were you surprised by the ladies outfits? In the 90s this was probably viewed as extreme by a culture that had only just invented jogging. Nowadays I'm surprised more by how poor the design was!
This episode was from ‘89 and I can promise you there was likely no one who had made it through the 1980s that would have found these outfits extreme. Aerobics had been HUGE throughout the 80s and these outfits were mild compared to a lot of work out wear of that decade.
The episode's real weakness to me is that they cast some guy who could have played Gabe from The Office as a seductive, charismatic love interest for Troi and a foil for Riker. He comes off as a creep and I could never buy that Troi actually felt anything for him, which derails most everything else the episode was trying to do. Otherwise, I think there was a lot of good material here and it could have been a very entertaining outing.
I’ve seen Matt McCoy in too many things to take him seriously as a love interest for Troi. He’s not bad necessarily, he’s just one of those guys who has been on every show, and plays every part the same way.
Some very cringe scenes, but all and all not a bad episode very much a product of the times
I find nothing cringy in this one.
Once again the writers forget Betazoids can't read Ferengi
I'm not sure if that had been decided or established at this point. But the scene at the end is not subject to that: Troi states she's "almost sure of it" which tells me she's using her psychology degree and not her Betazoied senses.
Ouch. Definitely does not pass the the Bechdal test. And the workout fits weren't that revealing in SD, but 13 year old me still liked em
This episode is the perfect example of the power of a musical score. It's a ho-hum melodrama but it's a frequent rewatch for me thanks to Ron Jones elevating through music. He nails the melancholic romantic theme.
I don't see my name often in TV/movies so imagine my surprise hearing it on TNG as a kid, but it's a slimy little Ferengi. If I ever met Frakes at a convention, I'd ask him to yell "then send in your own probe, GOSS!" at me.
This episode showcases one of TNG's biggest weaknesses: Treating the female cast as sex objects, specifically Troi. You begin to wonder if all Betazoids are sexed up horndogs. Her mother is constantly trying to bone Picard, and Troi gets emotionally involved with every telepath that comes on board. And let's not forget when she had an alien's immaculate baby!
I don't think the baby thing really objectified her...
Really showing how they either don't know how or don't want to write female characters on this show. They get it right sometimes but this episode? Blegh. At least Riker gets some good scenes.
On the plus side, we get the scene with the ferengi asking who gets the chairs. On the down side, the writers forgot to end the episode with Devinoni Ral dying slowly in a gruesome transporter accident.
I remember literally nothing of this episode except for that one scene with Troi and Crusher.
Oh...yeah...this one.
I was wondering when I read your take for the last episode, hah.
Oh god, it’s the episode with THAT scene! Poor Sirtis and McFadden.
So, what do you guys expect happen to the Ferengi stranded on the other side? Would a follow up story about those guys be interesting?
Snooze-fest. Troi gets her feet oiled up and rubbed by the slimiest guy in Star Trek, and it isn't the Ferengi. Only thing this episode is good for is establishing the Gamma and Delta Quadrants, and wormhole facts. Thank god there wasn't another slo-mo wormhole scene to drag out this snore fest any longer. Worse than anything S1&2 served up. Nice verbal slap down by Riker though.
But but but... he's got such great eyes! (It's also good at definitively expressing that Riker and Troi aren't still porking, as some like to believe.)
The chap playing Devinoni Ral was the “Mahoney” replacement on Police Academy 5 and I could never quite get past that. 😂
It's almost like when Chris Elliot was in The Abyss. I saw it in the theater and when he came on the screen, people were laughing because they knew him only from his comedy bits with David Letterman.
Can't talk about the two most interesting aspects of this episode for quite a while unfortunately.
The cool makeup alien Leyor was played by Kevin Peter Hall (The Predator).
I predict that you’ll wonder when you’ll get to see Riker and Worf wearing leotards, gossiping while they stretch in the mirror room after one of their holodeck workouts. It’s a shame that they didn’t show Crusher and Troi in uniform having a chat while getting in some target practice at the phaser firing range. Or, maybe they could have conversed while having an anbo-jyutsu match.
If there’s one thing I like about this episode it’s that it FINALLY established what the hell a QUADRANT is! We learn that the galaxy is divided into 4 quadrants: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta. This little tidbit is all I remember, seemingly having blocked out the Troi plot, body oils and all.
Except for every time they say "the Enterprise is the only ship in the quadrant!" as if the entire fleet traveled 30k+ light years away.
Now this is a good use of the Ferengi. It's hard to take them seriously as a military threat, but in a business negotiation, they can be devious.
Watched enough to make sure this was the one I thought it was. Gotta agree with the early sentiment. It's unfortunate that the first episode to focus on Troi this season is also such a clunker. We know she can do well with good stuff, but she doesn't really get much here. This is no "shades of grey" or "up the long ladder", but it's not a good episode. I'm fairly sure you'll agree. (And the Ferengi are once again, terribly racist caricatures of you-know-who.)
Erm the first, and thankfully rare, misfire of the season. Some nice discussions about being upfront about being a Betazoid aside this is largely meh, with the obnoxious Ferengi threatening to derail the episode even more than they already do.
That yoga scene is... jarring at best, gratuitous at worst. I guess they were hoping to boost the ratings on this very meh episode.
Lower Decks (the animated series) spoofs that yoga scene. And yeah, it is jarring and gratuitous but Trek has done far worse since then (See Enterprise).
Isn’t Marina Sirtis beautiful when they show Troi off-duty? Great episode for her and Riker, again the show making unexpected choices with the plot and character yet they remain true.
I guess the show really... found its footing.