UNCUT - Rascals (TNG S6E7) | Star Trek Journey 241

I hate the episode with a passion. The kids a terrible. The whole scenario makes no sense and the solution where the kids save the day is all so contrived.

Just FYI, those kids are probably older than you are :)

I like this episode shout out to Dennis McCarthy the music was on point.

Ok in rewatch I think I was too harsh on this one. It’s a lot of fun, some great scenes, it’s fun. Love the final scene with Ro, who is my fave of the child actors. Sure the plot is a bit thin but again just goofy fun. Still don’t like the Picard kid actor tho haha

Unless it’s mentioned in the last seven minutes of discussion, I can’t believe I can’t find anyone in the comments mentioning how the kid who played Young Picard has already done so in the past…he played Renee Picard in Family. Edit: ……oh.

I didn't even remember this episode. Fun watch, though.

Fun, Morality, Horror, Story......

Best Ferengi yet. Yet.

This is one of my favourite episodes because it's so absurd. The child actors all nailed their roles and the story was fun. Is it far fetched, sure, but sometimes that's not the point, especially in more comedic type episodes. Plus seeing Alexander embrace a bit of badassness would make Worf proud. Some of the "weird" episodes usually have some of the best lines. Like Worf saying "I'm not a merry man" in QPid or he's my number one dad in this one.

Growing up, I've found this episode to be beyond stupid. Almost insultingly cringe. The Enterprise gets taken over by two surplus Birds of Prey? Controlled by Ferengi? Four core cast members are turned into children? We have an insanely awkward scene between Miles and Keiko? The cast conveniently ignore a body horror scenario that may in fact be the solution to immortality? I dreaded this episode being reacted to, because I expected y'all to hate it entirely. But I am very... very much pleased to see that you both enjoyed it. More than anything, I want y'all to have fun with this series, as it means much to me. And I suppose--in anticipation of many episodes--that's caused me to put on extremely cynical goggles, so to speak. I forgot how impressive the lead Ferengi villain was. They did the best with what had become a C-List Trek faction by this point. For what it's worth, the Ferengi only get better, so you have that to look forward to. I think this episode's biggest fault (or perhaps gift) is that it exists within the shadow of Home Alone's success. Back in the 90s, the "kids pull pranks on adult villains" trope was its own heavily popular genre, and this episode is merely a Trek spin on it. It's extremely dated, extremely stupid... but--yes--extremely fun. Thanks for restoring my faith in stuff like this~

This kind of episode was ok and fun for a change back when we had full 26 episode long seasons.....however nowadays with 10 episode seasons and years between seasons, we get far too much focus on these fun silly type episodes in Nu Trek.

This episode has a collection of some of the best child actors that they’ve put in the series so far

We're getting so close to much better Ferengi...

I think one reason I like you guys is me and my best friend have been friends since we were teeny tiny people, too. And still hang out a lot. Kind of rare, I find. And I probably have a couple decades on you!

OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!! You guys liked it!!!! HOLY CRAP! Hell yeah!!! I was dreading this reaction because well .... Ferengi, A LOT of guest characters and kids! This was sure to fail with you guys. I am so pleasantly surprised! Love this episode, not the best of all time or anything but one of my favorites for sure! A for me, depending on my mood when I watch it, sometimes its an S lol.

Season six is soooooo season 6!

I for one have always loved this episode, even though the main cast are missing, I love episodes where you get the humour shine through, it was a very fun watch.

Yes. I hate this episode. Its one of the worst of the entire series IMO. I hate the stupid contrived plot, basically anything in Trek involving children, and TNG depictions of Ferengi in general. I hate the wild misuse of the Bird of Prey, and the fact that a half dozen cartoonish Ferengi so easily overwhelmed the Federation Flagship. I hate goofy comic relief stuff in general. But yeah, I expected you guys would be down with it on a character basis. The kid actors did a good job, (and usually child actors are AWFUL). That said...it makes no sense whatsoever.

Coffee, double sweet..

I’ve always liked this episode since I was about the age of the child actors when this first aired and it’s extremely silly but sometimes you need silly fun Star Trek episodes. I’ll take silly over boring any day.

The girl playing young Guinan later played young Whoopi in Sister Act

I think the only reason why the Ferengi were using Klingon ships was so they could use stock footage from Yesterday’s Enterprise. (All the effects shots were reuses.)

The big problem with the episode for me is the ease of which the Ferengi took over the ship. Otherwise it's a lot of fun.

It’s so funny, as another person comment looks on your faces on these photos are basically the same expressions that you guys have today. Priceless.

Honestly, this is the first time I really have watched this episode since I watched at as my most cynical teenage self. It is better than I had remembered, and there are fun moments. It is still not my favourite.

Huh... Kid Josh still has that "Oh, okay, we'll see where this goes" look, and Alex still has his "What the £$@% are you doing?" look. The more things change... 🙃

Wanted more episodes of shore leave but didn’t like captains holiday lol jk

I’m with you guys on this one. I think it’s a very fun episode overall that gets a bad rap for some reason. I really like the idea of a favorite episodes list by category!! Once this series is over, you’ll obviously be doing a top 10 or whatever. I’d love to see your individual opinions and picks on Top 5: - Fun Episodes - Morality Episodes - Tear jerker/heart string - Horror/creepy - Top 5 WTF moments Something like that anyway. I want 5 lists of top 5 for the series from each of you. I’m putting my foot down.

I’m not finished with the reaction yet but you know what I’d love to see? An episode where the Ferengi are not inexplicably overpowered. An episode where they attack and get absolutely shat on. Worf just beating the shit out of waves and waves of tiny pathetic Ferengi. Data launching Ferengi through the walls. Riker blasting chunks out of their stupid ships.

I still love the fact that trek always finds these cures/fixes for aging then they get forgotten about for the next episode where someone is old and sad about dying soon .

While this episode has its moments, it is not one of my favorites and not one I typically watch. The Good: Picard commanding the other children by gaining their respect, a role he learned from "Disaster." Riker confusing the Ferengi with fake technobabble while secretly unlocking the school workstation. Ro learning to appreciate being a child again, and Guinan encouraging her. The Meh: Some of the child acting (mostly Ro and Guinan) fell flat to me, like they were just reading the script. The stakes for the science team and the crew being forced into slave labor just didn't feel real. The Bad: How easily they were boarded and subdued and how bad a shot Worf was. How did the transporters tailor their clothes to fit them? They should have materialized in ill fitting clothes. Actually, the idea that they would materialize as children to begin with is just silly. Altered DNA needs to be expressed through physiological processes over time to alter appearances. I had this same issue when Polaski materialized looking normal. A medical readout from someone should have confirmed success, not her appearances. Same with Troi in "Man of the People." The Ugly: Keiko & O'Brian. Keiko should have felt just as conflicted as O'Brian did. She was smaller, childlike, and would have been missing her stronger attractions to O'Brian as her body would need to experience puberty again. That scene in their quarters should have instead been a scene with Troi, having a discussion that faced the mutual discomfort in a safe setting. Watching a woman in a child's body with adult intentions try to seek physical comfort from a clearly uncomfortable man was cringe worthy.

I rate this one a B, as in "Boy, that was fun."

I’ll wait for the YouTube edit on this one. Can’t subject myself to a full 45 mins. 😂

That opening segment was so heartwarming 😊 The kids they got to play Josh and Alex were very convincing

I've always had a soft spot for this episode, and it's a lot of fun, but man, the contrivances are laid on thick. First: the Enterprise absolutely would not go down to two Klingon Birds of Prey, and the ship absolutely could not be taken over by the relative handful of Ferengi who boarded it. The regular security teams could have handled all of them, and should have. And don't even get me started on Worf, our Security Chief, not being able to hit the broad side of a barn with his phaser. There were also plenty of instances where Riker alone could have overpowered the Ferengi who had a gun on him, and if you think about it Data should have been able to defeat all the Ferengi who took the bridge by himself. And finally, the idea that Picard needed to be relieved of duty just because his body looked different suddenly was ridiculous. If I were Picard I would have told Doctor Crusher that she and the rest of the crew would just have to get over their discomfort about my appearance and get back to work because I would most certainly not be stepping down under these circumstances and it was unprofessional of her to even suggest it. But it's still a lot of fun, mostly due to the actors they cast for the kids. Young Picard and young Ro were absolutely charming, and for the first time ever, Alexander didn't annoy me. This one is a solid B, but don't think about the plot too much. Things happen because they would be fun, not because they make sense.

Yet another sterling example of why starfleet ships have therapists on board- things can get super weird!

I quite enjoy this episode, even though I am aware many people do not. It's just some silly fun, and I really like the way the plan to retake the ship comes together at the end. (And they included Alexander as well!) But my favourite part is the ongoing friendship between Guinan and Ro. They had some nice moments here, and Ro staying a child to draw her mother was surprisingly touching actually. Not every episode is going to be a bullseye, but for me, it definitely hit what it was aiming for.

I wouldn’t mind being 12 again, especially knowing all I know now.

Frustrated in their efforts to convince Michelle Forbes to come aboard as a regular, several producers wanted to hire Megan Parlen as a series regular. Although the idea was shot down, some felt it appealing to have had a 12-year old Ro as helmsman of the Enterprise.

I remember hearing in an interview that the hallways of the Enterprise were very difficult for audio recording. It often sounded bad, especially when they were walking. That's why most of the ADR is in the hallways.

I’m almost disappointed you didn’t hate it lol Props to you guys never ceasing to surprise us.

I'm definitely in the middle of the road on this episode. I don't love it(probably give it a C+), but I don't hate it like many fans seem to. It's a goofy episode, yes, but it also does some things right, and it's harmless fun. I will give it some credit, as soon as you start criticizing them for not just doing what they did with Pulaski when she was rapidly aging, the episode very quickly shifts right to that possibility. The difference was in Pulaski's case, it was either do the procedure or die. In this case, they established that all of them would age normally with no real health risk forcing them to do it, and of course the ferengi attack put that plan on hold. As to whether the characters should have stayed young or not, I guess it depends. It was probably least feasible for Keiko. Her daughter doesn't recognize her, and her husband doesn't want to end up on a list. Even if they put any kind of physical relationship on hold for 6 years, Keiko would now be 18 and O'Brien in his mid/late 40s. Would their marriage even survive that? It would just be way too disruptive. Guinan is trickier. She seemed perfectly happy being a kid again, which is in fitting with her character. Given how long her people live, she'd gain centuries of extra life. They're basically like the Asari from Mass Effect. The question is, how fast do they mature. Would Guinan have to spend 50-60 years as a kid, or do they reach adulthood about as fast as humans and them age very slowly after that? If so, seems like a no brainer to just wait a few years and go back to tending bar in 10 Forward. Ro is pretty young, so she's not getting as much time back anyway. OTOH, she also had a pretty shitty childhood. That could make her avoid wanting to relive it, or it could be an opportunity to actually enjoy being a kid, and I like that they had her grapple with that question. Picard seems obvious. He just took over half a century off his age. Obviously while the Enterprise crew might get used to his squeaky kid voice and accept that it's still Picard under there, it's gonna be a problem when you want a romulan commander or opposing factions in some diplomatic dispute to take him seriously. But like Troi suggested, he could spend 12-13 years pursuing personal interests he rarely has time for, write a few papers, and return to starfleet when he's physically 25 or so. I doubt Starfleet would have a problem with one of their best captains taking a decade off if it means he'll come back in his physical prime with 50 years of service left to give. Ultimately though, the real reason they returned to their original ages is that they obviously weren't going to write the regular actors out of the show. Would I take that deal? Hell yeah. My 20s sucked, and my 30s haven't been much better. If I gotta look like a kid for 4-5 years until I at least hit my late teens, it's a small price to pay.

That was a great Sunday watch with you guys.. I wasnt sure how you would react to this episode but wow that was a lot of fun.. "Thanks, Number One." (A Ferengi guard eyes Picard and Riker with suspicion) "- He's my number one dad!" (Picard and Riker embrace, grinning widely) --------------- Nimoy was concerned about the voices of the child actors compared to those of the adults, describing the casting of the Picard role as "tough". Birkin was cast in that role; he had previously played Picard's nephew Rene in The Next Generation episode "Family". Isis Carmen Jones portrayed the younger version of Guinan; the actress had also played the young version of Goldberg's character in the film Sister Act. However, due to the differences in the voices of the two actresses, Jones was dubbed in "Rascals"

You guys should definitely do a ranking by story genre down the line, that would be fun.

It's a good episode for the fun factor. An easy nitpick is they reused footage from Yesterday's Enterprise for the scene where the Bords of Prey attack. Also Worf, Chief of Security, can't hit a stationary target at near point blank range, smh. Edit 1 min later: .............and Worf had the High Ground! xD

the only problem I have with this episode is that, canonically, NO WAY would 2 Klingon Birds-of-Prey take out the Enterprise. 2 Romulan ships however (The Defector, at Nelvana III), no contest. Firepower and shield strength seem to be a massive plot inconsistency within the entire Star Trek franchise.

it wasn't just that Riker was explaning things in the most technical way, he was just making up a bunch of nonsense to keep the ferengi occupied counting that he would just assume it was his own ignorance and not want to tell his boos he couldnt understand Riker's instructions. There actually is some consistency in the fictional tech that fans who really want to get into that can learn, and Riker was largely bsing.

So glad y'all enjoyed this episode. It's light hearted fun and one i have a soft spot for

The "wall of writers" here is misleading, because the ideas was generated by Piller and Taylor in the fifth season, and it got kicked arounf through several rewrites till it was assigned to Moore. So it's really Moore's script but because of the development process all the writers who had worked on it were credited. But Moore was the main writer who actually got into shaoe and made it the episode it was.

Riker's technobable distraction maneuver has to be up there with one of the funniest moments of the show so far, and of course his reunification with his long lost bald but not bald son he never knew he had! LOL is the only word for this episode, in the best meaning possible.

the actress who played young Guinan played a younger version of a Whoopi Goldberg character in the movie in "Sister Act"

so three of the actors who played the ferengi had previously played other ferengi in "The Last Outpost" and "The Perfect Mate"

You guys (Alex anyway) always assume the worst about the "wall" of writers, but the evidence doesn't really back that up: Here are all the episodes wiht a wall of writers you've hit so far. They're mostly good! 6: Yesterday's Enterprise, First Contact 5: Reunion, Power Play, Imaginary Friend 4: Datalore, Arsenal of Freedom, The Outrageous Okona, Booby Trap, The Wounded, Violations, Schisms, Rascals A few duds in there, but also some classics! Next time the wall comes up just relax and let them sweep you up in their many, many hands. :)

I thought all the kid actors were great in the sense that I believed all them in the way they delivered their lines as these adult minds in child bodies that matched the characters but in that weird specific framework. Credit to the acting, writing, and directing there.

So with the Ferengi, the ships arent part of a Ferengi military, they are mostly privately owned and even those thats serve the government are privately contracted (they are hyper capitalist) so when an individual ferengi crew does something they aren't doing on behalf of the ferengi state.

"Contrived plot" to me means that events don't feel like they're happening naturally; you can sense that events are happening not because they would logically be expected to in the story but solely because the writer needs them to happen. I can KIND OF see that here, with the takeover of the Enterprise being a bit too easy, just because we need to set things up for the kids to save the day. It doesn't actually bother me in this case, though; I love this episode.

Obviously the best kid episode since Imaginary Friend

Riker giving 'em the fizzbin.

Yuk

On the subject of building sets based on the writing vs. writing based on what was available, I read that there was a joke between Ronald Moore and set decorator Jim Mees about this. Moore would always write scenes where they remove a panel to work on some circuitry or whatever underneath it, and Mees kept telling him, "You know, there aren't actually any circuits under there. Every time you write this we have to build it from scratch!"

The scenes between the Chief and Keiko remind me of the concepts introduced in The Host. Looks absolutely play a role in relationships for us. What would any of us do if suddenly our wife or husband looked like a 10 year old, even if otherwise they were exactly the same person? Would the relationship even be able to continue? Or would we adjust somehow?

I'm surprised this is a hated episode by so many. Really fun and the kid actors are great imo.

I really like this episode. It's done very well. I especially like the interaction between Guinan and Ro. It's probably my favorite non-serious episode.

Yes, I remember seeing set photos from this episode of Picard with his younger self.

Good, engaging episode. I am SOOOO glad you liked it!

This was definitely a kid-focused episode done right.

You're right, I thought you'd hate it. I'm glad I was wrong.

I love this episode. Not the best one ever, but it's fun and funny, and just a good time. The kid actors all did a great job, especially the one playing Picard. The scene at the end with Guinan and Ro always makes me emotional. Glad you guys enjoyed this one.

Ah what a random collection of people on a shuttle mission… Goofy trek and it’s fine in the right frame of mind but god that child playing Picard is bad 🤦🏻

I'm not sure what the overall fan community thinks of this one. My impression is that they do not like it, but I have always thought it was pretty good. It's not great - maybe a B or so - but it's really not at all as bad as some of the worst criticisms I have seen of it.

God, this episode is one of the worst. Very cringe. How can some of you guys commenting here like this episode? (I haven't seen the reaction yet, so I don't yet know how THEY feel about this episode.)

This episode is also known as "Main cast's day off" 'I hate it.

Adam Nimoy is Leonard Nimoy's son. 🖖

My second favourite episode of a very strong Season, and favourite Ferengi episode of TNG. S

Could not be a more appropriate thumbnail!

I've spent ages waiting for this one, it's a favourite of mine, the actor playing young Picard does a great job; although I can't help but feel it would have been even better if we'd gotten say Worf instead of Keiko. Fun fact: the young Picard actor also played Picard's nephew in 'family'.

Thank you for sharing those vids of you as kids! Kid Josh was hilarious!