FULL DISCUSSION - Star Trek TNG S3E8 - The Price

I just realized that the actor playing Ral is the same actor who was Lloyd Braun on Seinfeld!!

lol this is where future knowledge just hurts and you want to blurt out what happens and how small details in this episode come back a few years and shows later lol.

I also took it more as a little bit of lazy writing. Most of the writers of TNG at this time, would have known about the aerobics craze. Something that was primarily embraced by women. I never took it let's make it sexual (because it never felt sexual to me). Lets find a more modern thing women due together, and instead of thinking about what they might be doing in the future, lets just riff a fad that was already dying but still was considered an Late 70's/80's fad..

Sometimes I find these scenes like the Troi/Crusher scene insulting to sci-fi fans. I feel like the producers are like, "these nerds are watching in their parent's basement, let's give them a little T&A." There is an episode of "Enterprise" where I think they take this too far.

Ral wasn't a Chrysalian, he's human/betazoid. He was just representing the Chrysalians

Hello, Newman...

I'll give Gene and the producers the benefit of the doubt here, and suggest that the only reason they had mirrors in the "yoga room" is in fact because it's really being filmed in the middle of the engineering set, and they had to hide that fact with something more interesting than just a wall plug. (Even as I'm typing this, I can't quite convince myself of that...)

This episode teaches you how to deal with two types of toxic people: charming manipulators (Ral), and people who are too loud, brash, overbearing, and just plain stupid for their own good (the Ferengi). With manipulators, you see through their tactics, challenge them, and expose what they're actually doing (Riker's scene in 10 Foreward, Troi exposing his deception to the others). With stupid people, you don't have to do anything. The stupid will take care of itself, and the trash will take itself out (the Ferengi stranding themselves in the Delta Quadrant). And I agrre that this, or possibly Peak Performance, is when they finally figured out how to use the Ferengi. They aren't dangerous or malicious. They're caricatures of us. They're capitalists who have no desire for violence, but they do have a desire for profit and good business dealings. They work as comic relief and as a nuisance as long as they're handled in a way that isn't completely over the top goofy. As you discovered, they're actually pretty welcome characters when handled well.

The guy who plays the love interest for Troi always struck me as being extremely awkward and terrible. Even when I was younger, I would cover my face at nearly every line he delivers. "I'm Debanani Ral...." Ugh, awful. This episode might be one of the worst in the series, but it does set up for a surprise in a later Trek show that I really enjoy.

I think even 13 year old me cringed when I first saw the "yoga" scene. It was just so clearly made to be eye candy. I think the interesting thing about this episode is what it could have been and wasn't. Imagine if instead of this wormhole being discovered by a race with an economic disadvantage, it was mutually discovered by Federation and Romulan long range sensors and there was a race to claim it with all the expected tension of brinkmanship? They could have done that, but IMO they would be over-using the Romulans in that way. And the story as is told helps to flesh out the galaxy a bit more, with other races, politics, negotiations, etc. This is a B tier episode for me at best though, and not one I go to for a re-watch. There are a few moments where the tension pays off, such as the wormhole jumping and leaving the Ferengi stranded, and Raul being exposed as an empath, but they just weren't satisfying enough to carry the whole episode.

Troi trying to get a "real chocolate sunday" and the computer initially not wanting to do it because it's not healthy gives you some hints about how the replicator works. When you order something unhealthy like a chocolate Sunday it makes it in such a way that it tastes incredibly close to the real thing but not quite. But in exchange you get something that has a perfect breakdown of macro and micro nutrients. Now the replicator "can" make a "real" chocolate Sunday but it generally won't unless the health guidelines are over rode. This would also partially explain in universe why almost everyone is pretty healthy and very few people are overweight (along with factors like plenty of opportunities for fun exercise like in the holodeck, and overall great mental health so few people will be eating to fulfill emotional needs...although Troi seemed like she was trying to eat for emotional needs in this episode). Of course the real world explanation is they generally hire fairly fit actors, who then wear tight tummy tucking outfits along with silicon muscle suits under their uniforms...lol.

I remember that they were trying to work up buzz for Troi's love scene. Like Entertainment Tonight talking about how steamy and risqué it was going to be. When I watched it after the hype the love scene was ho hum. Good episode, though.

I don’t love to hate Devinoni Ral. Hey Ral, it’s not “this damned ship.” It’s the Enterprise. I mean, it might be damned depending on what’s firing at it, invading it, or trapping it, but this week the only “damned” thing is you and those poor Ferengi.

Thanks for reading my take. That felt like a therapy session 🤣

I'm going to download this discussion and study it... study it very, very closely.

10:00 That's exactly what it is. Riker chose his career over Deanna. They both found each other again on the same ship and they're just friends. No games, no drama, no porking. Still lots of deep caring. Adults being mature adults.

7:38 Not 7,000 light years... 70,000 light years. Three-quarters of the way across the galaxy. Remember that 70,000 light years means that, "if you traveled at the speed of light, it would [still] take 70,000 years to make the journey." The whole point of Warp Drive is to go "faster than light" or else it would take ages to get anywhere. Warp 9 is many times faster than the speed of light (it's a logarithmic scale), but that trip would still take 80+ years.

0:03 😮🤩

I’ve always liked this episode I can still remember the night it aired me and my brother were outside playing in the snow, fighting Borg. And we came inside to watch and warm up. I love pretty much all of season 3 really!

One reason why the mirrors were there is that this is really the main Engineering set. The mirrors covered up stuff.

If memory serves, this was the first episode of TNG that I saw. Kind of a weird introduction, especially since I was like seven years old.

For me, this episode did for Ferengi what Star Trek III did for Klingons.

The better Troi episodes aren't the Troi episodes.

"I dOnT tHiNk itS A pIeCe A sHiT" - Some Guy On The Internet.

What the hell was that teaser? Didn't even tease the Ferengi drama and explosions? Just "nah, Troi arguing at dinner about negotiations... nailed it!"

They’re FWBs. It’s pretty clear, but they couldn’t say it explicitly back then.

TA Yoga Session scene will be expected every discussion video. Josh, you're up.