PATRON TAKES - Star Trek TNG - Season 2 Episode 5
Comment on this post your ‘takes’ on this episode and we will read a few in our discussion!
NO SPOILERS - If it is information regarding anything THAT DOES OR DOES NOT HAPPEN after this episode, don't include it in your comment.
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- A brief review (2-3 sentences) of why you like/dislike the episode
- A question for us about the episode
- A prediction of how you think we will react to a certain aspect of the episode
- A fun fact about the episode
We are watching this episode Monday, so we won’t be reading the comments on this until then. If you have questions shoot us a message!
Comments (53)
A Troi Episode with 2 really good scenes. The Scene back on the ship after the Chorus is killed....actually all the scenes are good after they go back! The Chorus Death scene will probably catch you off guard. I bet you enjoy this one!
I never really liked this episode. Maybe because when I first watched it I was 10 and wasn't too interested in a romance laden episode....and that had continued to taint the way I view it.🤷♂️
I can relate. I was older than you upon first viewing... but I have usually found the deep character dive stuff boring. I want the sci-fi stuff, not what Worf had for dinner 15 years ago.
Great concept for an episode but its execution is so poor and heavy handed, that it just doesn't work. Again message is absolutely great. But Yikes.
For some reason, this episode gets a bit of dislike, but I really liked it. It COULD come out cringy, but due to the main guest star being deaf and having real input into how his character would behave, I think it comes off as being honest and authentic instead of how this sort of thing would normally work. The chorus, when they speak, does have me roll my eyes a tiny bit, thinking "neat idea, shabby execution"; when they die, the episode gets much better.
I wanted to learn sign language after that episode although low vision and blindness make that far more difficult to learn to do than speak Klingon I Have thought about it and want to clarify that my use of the word spoiler was a joke in the next sentence. As the Klingon language=ge has been a thing ever since Mark Leonard spoke in Star Trek The Motion Picture Now it is not a spoiler to say that you can learn to speak Klingon on line, right? KPlAH!
Maybe this is one of those episodes you appreciate once you're older? Aside from some good character moments, I always saw this as an ultimately boring one. Time for a rewatch!
I like the episode but I wish they’d done more with Geordi’s sub plot. It’s an interesting choice but it only gets about one scene.
Well, it shows that Pulaski is a different "type" of doctor to Crusher. This is explored further, too.
An interesting concept and I believe the actor was deaf in real life.
It’s just a ceremonial greeting, number one. Where is everybody?
Fun fact, John de Lancie (Q) is married to Marnie Mossiman who was the female chorus in this episode.
Spoilers... edited out, thanks.
Troi is great in this episode, and I really like the scene with Picard at the end.
I agree. Hope they don't talk over it, lol.
Overall, this is a memorable episode to me as it featured a deaf man playing a deaf man and showing that a disability isn’t a weakness. The scene with Rivas and Geordi is among my favorite of season 2.
Prediction: The plot twist will be predicted before it happens.
I was wrong, they didn't predict it.
Riva: Best beard in the 24th century and beyond! LOL!
Hell yeah, rocking the 1970s look and doing it well even in 1989.
Prediction: The boys are really going to like this one. The characters are written well and unmistakably dramatic.
I think this episode is one of the few episodes of Star Trek that transcends its medium. The human condition will always persist, even in a utopia-like future. Overcoming life's challenges is something we all share and struggle with. As I like to point out, why do we focus on petty differences when we all have so much more in common with each other??
This one I've always had a soft spot for. It's probably not that great an episode but I really like the idea of what it was trying to do.
A good story idea, but the execution is cringey. This great mediator seems to just want to get laid for the first half of the episode. The animation of the “skeleton ray” was a little stiff and unrealistic, but the effects crew was still experimenting.
The death of the Chorus was pretty gory, often overshadowed in people's minds by Conspiracy. Not much I do remember about this episode, except it was about a deaf person who had this really cool concept of a chorus. I'd say not a standout, but decently okay.
Yeah those weapons look incredibly painful. Ugh!
You will probably laugh out loud at how lame the pre-title cliffhanger is.
7
The biggest thing I remember liking about this episode is Howie Seago's performance. If he doesn't sell this character, this episode fails. He does an excellent job.
Marnie Mosiman who plays Harmony of Riva's chorus is the wife of John de Lancie who played Q
I really like this episode. It is such an original idea I think. I predict you guys are really going to like it because the acting is top notch by the guest star. The amount of emotion portrayed with no speech is really good.
This one is ok. The lady in the chorus was/is married to John Delancy, the guy who plays Q.
I always liked this one. In my rankings for the season I have this one as "Excellent".
I like Riva's charisma and determination to get things done. I believe Worf would admire his bravery
Especially getting Troi done! LOL!
Fun (?) fact: The three members of the Chorus correspond to Sigmund Freud's concept of the Id (the Scholar/Artist), Ego (the Warrior/Adonis), and Superego (the Woman).
I think the Id would be more the warrior/adonis, wouldn't he?
I think this episode i deserves much more attention. The first great Troi episode. It's a great example of using science fiction to tell a very human story
In case you wondered why Riva didn’t write down what he was trying to say after his chorus died, apparently originally there was a part in the script that stated that the members of the family he belonged to didn’t read or write but this information didn’t make it into the final cut of the episode.
Which would be laughable, too, so it's just as well they didn't.
Geordi with regular eyes? Too soon.. I hope this doesn’t give him false hope
I really enjoyed that during the scene where Picard is trying to talk down the distraught Riva, Howie Seago made sure his unsubtitled lines completely fit the situation. Whenever films or series make that extra effort when most won't notice, it's great.
That was painfully obvious, even to those of us who don't know sign language: Howie's role was astonishing and a true inspiration of how so many of us just freak out when life takes a tragic turn (in any way), and we just "go off" about it -- but sometimes, if we LISTEN, friends around us can point us toward a new beginning that gives us hope.
Not too bad this episode, not quite In Truth There Is No Beauty but still a good overcoming adversity episode for its time
I had totally forgotten about this episode. Howie Seago did an amazing job. He really impressed me with his acting skills when he couldn’t even hear the others, his timing and facial expressions were spot on!
Fun fact: I went to Google which episode this was and forgot to put "TNG" in my search results, so it brought up TOS's "The Apple." I was confused. Nonplused, you might say. Uh... I have no memory of this episode at all.
"TNG season 2" seems to work well in the search bar.
There may be a difference of opinion, but I do think this is Troi's strongest episode up to this point in the series. This is one of my personal top 5 of the season because I like the idea of the chorus and the resolution to it all.
I agree - I also thing it is Troi's strongest episode up this point. It showed she could do more than just say "I feel ..." and "I sense ..."
The actor who played Riva is deaf in real life. Also several others in his family were deaf or hearing impaired. He petitioned to to showrunners to make an episode that represented deaf people.
I had read that in another post some years ago, on another site, of course, and when I discovered his real life in that light, it brought tremendous poignancy to having seen the episode. It's yet another example of Gene Roddenberry wanting to show the world (us viewers) that even The Handicapped have value (i.e., as in "Everyone Matters"), such as Geordi being blind and yet he's in Starfleet AND is the Chief Engineer of the Federation's flagship. That MEANS something, and it's terrific!
This is the episode where I finally started liking Deanna Troi and Jean Luc Picard. Prior to this, I thought Troi was a useless character who just went around saying "I feel...", "I sense..." and not much else, and I thought the bald captain was a bit of a jerk. But this episode showed me more to what Troi could do and be as a person, and by this point Steward had become more relaxed; less rigid, serious, and all-business.
The death of the Chorus is pretty brutal. Not "Conspiracy" level brutal, but still surprised they let it air like that.