UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek TNG S1E26 - The Neutral Zone

I've heard a lot of people consider this episode super boring and a weak finale, but I've always felt it was solidly in the top 1/4 of S1 eps. Yeah it's not a masterpiece, but it does a good job setting up some momentum and mystery for the rest of the series. It left the audience with something to come back for. I would say this ties into Conspiracy somewhat. Presumably the meeting Picard was at discussed both the recent parasitic invasion AND the potential Romulan threat. The other tie in is they must still be pretty close to Earth if they're encountering a satellite from the 20th century. Barring a wormhole or the satellite being stolen and later dumped there by some alien race, it can't have made it very far in even 400 years. Like to get to even 1% of light speed, this satellite wouldn't need to just break out of orbit, it would literally have to speed up to over a million times faster than orbital velocity, and that would only get it close to Alpha Centauri, not the system Worf mentioned. Maybe it got lucky and caught a few slingshots from Jupiter and other planets to get a boost, then maybe it got a big boost from a small black hole somewhere outside the solar system, but even then it's such a long shot. My theory is that some aliens took it aboard their ship, stole one of the bodies(why launch with an empty compartment), broke a couple of the other freezer units, and dumped it in deep space. I think the way they handled the fish out of water story of the 3 people from the 20th century was fairly well balanced. Clare was mostly just upset at the realization that everyone she knew was long dead, and that's quite understandable. Clemonds was basically just really chill with the whole thing. Offenhouse was kind of a dick and self centered but not entirely unbelievable. His obsession with his own wealth makes him a bit of a caricature though. I wish someone had basically asked him if he had the money what would he buy, like a suit or a fancy watch or whatever, and then replicate those things for free to drive home the principle of WHY money has become obsolete. When everyone has a replicator, why pay for anything? Obviously replicators would need energy and raw materials, but everything can be recycled down to base elements and assembled back into whatever you need with no manufacturing process. It's just OP economically. Post scarcity society indeed. And finally, the Romulans appear, along with Ron Jones' brilliant theme for them. I'm in the minority in actually preferring the TNG Romulans over their TOS counterparts. Head ridges and all. My personal theory is that they've genetically engineered themselves since branching off from the Vulcans. I can see Romulans turning to GE to subdue those parts of their biology that they view as a weakness/liability, such as pon farr. I really like the suspense of not knowing what happened to all these outposts, only for the reveal that the prime suspects(Romulans) end up being victims of the same kind of attacks. It's very ominous and a nice curve ball to end the season on. As I said before, this leads into the Borg introduction in Q Who, and was originally meant to be connected to the plot of Conspiracy. Pretty good episode and finale in my opinion. It certainly does a better job setting up and teasing the future of the series than any of the TOS finale. S1 ended a lot stronger than it started IMHO, and I think S2 ended up being significantly stronger. The biggest downside of S2 was swapping Crusher for Pulaski, but the rest of the cast were all so much more comfortable in their roles, and S2 had some truly outstanding episodes.

I don't mean to give any spoilers, but you are going to see a lot more of "Commander Tabok" in the future

I always found it odd how in the beginning the crew basically acted like they where annoyed that these people where even alive. Like ugh how dare they bother trying to live longer/come back to life, they are so ancient and backwards…they where scared of death back in those days🙄….ugh I guess we will have to keep them alive and treat them like full fledged humans or something. But then finally riker at the end has a more respectful view on them being visitors from the past. If you think about it they should all be a bit more excited and amazed at this glance into history and the scientific luck etc that made it possible. It was nice though to get a lot of world building exposition about the utopian future and lack of money and hunger etc and life being about bettering oneself etc. Unfortunately they walk back a lot of that vibe in nu trek and go a more blade runner dystopian vibe

I always liked this episode but most really rag on this episode they say this was the worst

It never occurred to me before this rewatch that the Sonny Clemens character and his potential career rebirth may have been inspired by Roy Orbison, who had been a star in the early 1960s and then became one again in the late 1980s after a long period when his career was on the rocks. Sadly, Orbison died of a heart attack in December 1988, later the same year this episode aired.

The cryo thing actually happened with the baseball legend Ted Williams, and one kid wanted him frozen the others thought it was a disgrace; they wound up in court I think when it came out his head was hanging in a freezer or something.

no score board update so, stupid Prof takes: 1. HELLO.......ROMULANIANS 2. Lawyers exist Samuel T Cogley esq, the book guy that defended Kirk in the "unnamed show of the past" 3. I wish that was a grandma of Khan 4. Worf way more emotional than TOsha. Romulan might be right, may need a leash sometimes. 5. God I wish I didn't know jack-holes like the self absorbed rich dude, but I do

I'm with you guys, I never understood the intense criticisms of season 1. Sure, it had its errors, but most shows need a little time to find their legs. Season 1 of TNG undoubtedly had some great moments.

The guy who played the stock broker was an actor from Dynasty the number one show on TV at the time, so that’s why the special credit.

38:05 It really annoys me that security just froze and didn't take what's his butt off the bridge.

For the remastered version, they actually did go back and work out the birth years of Clare's children for the display of the family tree. Her eldest Tommy was born in 1986 and her second son Edward was born in 1989. Though that display in itself produces an error because it suggests they were born in Indianapolis when Clare quite clearly states that Tommy at least was born in Secaucus, NJ

33:45 You guys should be reacting to the news of the outpost being similar to things revealed in the past...

The “frozen humans” plot was basically a non-story, but I loved the reappearance of the Romulans after so much teasing. My only issue was the unnecessary forehead ridges. They’re supposed to look like Vulcans, so I never got the point.

Smart decision taking a break between seasons. Back in ‘88 we had to wait 6 months due to the writers strike.

Being a person who watched Trek since 1966, I'm of the generation who started this "Next Gen 1st season is crap" stuff. A lot of people didn't think it was possible to capture lightning in a bottle with a new series. I thought "Farpoint" was an OK episode, but recycling "The Naked Time" so early was a putoff. But we gave it a chance and TNG ranks up there with the original. By the way, does anybody watch these reactions with the closed captions on? They are frequently hilarious.

That romulan ship is so cool. It was originally supposed to be oriented 90 degrees from the presented image making it tall instead of wide but someone liked the horizontal orientation better. The shape of things to come. Where did the outposts go? Interestingly enough the last episode was originally supposed to connect to this one. But thanks to. The 88 writers strike the next season was short 4 episodes. Which required some significant rewrites so these episodes no longer connect. There was.originally those too episodes were to connect to a three episode story which was also destroyed by the writers strike and the subsequent production delays . I’m not sure what we would have got but Judging from what we got it would have been mind blowing. The human adventure is just beginning

Presumably the people were either clinically dead or brain-dead when they were frozen, but not "dead" dead. Even 24th century medicine can't reanimate a corpse. Nice that the standard Starfleet coveralls haven't changed much since the 23rd century.

I always liked this one. It's enjoyable with a mystery and a bit of humor.

Enjoy your break gentlemen!

Another one! Thank you for all your hard work guys, even through the holidays.

Give her a chance.

Hot damn!