PATRON TAKES - Star Trek TNG S4E4

How sad is it that the child remembers his human family and has great anguish over being separated from them, but doesn't have the will to speak up about it?

I like the idea of thrusting Picard into a fatherly role, especially after we have seen his nephew and know that he’s okay with kids, despite not liking them. It’s funny watching him try to weasel out of it with Troi. But, when I rewatched this, it made me wonder. If the kid had been a few years older, this would have made a good Wesley episode. If he had been the one to have to try and reach out to Jono. Missed opportunity, imho.

Oddly, after reading comments... so far, I'm the 1 person who put this in the E tier. I expected more E votes. Howling kids and bad "child" actors destroys anything positive. I prefer WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS over this one.

Honestly it's sadly a straight up skip episode for me so. I can't even give any constructive criticism. Boring plot I guess. Bottom of the barrel for me (worst 20 eps) . Will rewatch alongside y'all though and hope I get a new perspective.

I think A&J will low-key like this one for the character, but it does suffer from following up both "Family" and "Brothers" as similar family focused character stories. Kid is annoying AF though 😆

Heads up! I promised I'd let you know when it came. Been many moons since that last bit, but this is the one that I THOUGHT "The Bonding" was. I promised I'd mention that when it came up. Not a fan.

For me it’s less about what’s on screen which is “ok” but more behind the scenes, the arrival of Jeri Taylor who would be an important voice in trek throughout the 90’s and along with Michael Piller instrumental in shaping the show.

It's merely okay. The saving grace here is that it would be easier to just take the kid away if his father enforced society's prejudice against humans and physically abused him, but he really did care for his son and vice versa. That made the decision harder, leading to thoughtful debate (among viewers at least).

Picard's discomfort with children was introduced in the pilot but is rarely well done. This one in particular stands out poorly because in airing order, his time with his nephew/uncle Rene was better than with Jono (I think the shooting error was reversed). Picard does fine with aliens of all types including Talarians, it's off-putting that he couldn't treat Jono as a Talarian instead of human kid.

While I liked the ending, I feel it didn't really justify the ride to get there.

Jeri Taylor sighting! Otherwise, not much to say about this episode

This episode is ass. They had the opportunity to factor in Worf's background or Picard being ripped from humanity, but no. And also the crew jumping to the conclusion he was abused because he had broken bones is tasteless and out-of-place racism (species-ism?)

I'm probably in the minority here, but I really like this one. I love episodes that explore alien cultures. I want to learn more about Telerian culture and I want whatever album Jono was jamming to in his quarters. Alien metal! I just wish they did more with this one with exploring Jono's psychology and the needs of both his Telerian father and his family on earth. I think a lot of time was wasted on trying to figure out whether or not his father was an abuser when it was pretty obvious the whole time that he wasn't.

A good deal hinges on how the guest character is received. Unfortunately "annoying kid" is always a hard sell

I wouldn't say it's terrible, but it's not up to the first three's standard. However, there isn't an "Oh no! The ship will explode because of a quantum string rip in space!" moment, and it stays character-focused, so I think you guys will still enjoy it.

An average to annoying episode at best. One I'm sure will reinforce Josh and Alex's desicion not to have kids.

Patron takes s04e04 ??! Am I missing something here? You haven't even watched s04e01 through 3 yet?

Not a second thought for that poor admiral, I guess.

Aaaaaagafagaggagahshshgghhsaaaaaahshsjjddugevsbhsfsv (screams).

I never cared for this episode, and that’s unfortunate because after a recent watch I think it’s actually quite good. It presents an impossible choice where every option is unacceptable to someone. And the choice isn’t solved by circumstances magically changing; Picard makes the hard choice. It’s a slow burn, but a bright one.

This one isn't an easy watch. For me it calls back to earlier Trek where they were constantly talking about how enlightened humanity is while consistently being judgemental and occasionally sneering at other cultures. It subverts that expectation by the assumption being wrong. Well acted, but by no means a favourite of mine.

Welcome Jeri Taylor to Trek. You’ll see her name more and more as time goes on. A ho-hum episode that gives a modest bit of insight into Picard. I never liked how the plot essentially removes Troi from the episode, since her key function is to help people in crisis, but here she can’t because she’s not a man. Always bothered me that a racquetball game is what causes Jono to break down. A pretty cheesy way of writing about trauma and loss. Kudos to the actor who plays the dad. I actually do believe that he loves his son. Not the season’s best. Very mid.