FULL DISCUSSION - Star Trek TNG S2E12 - The Royale

i think they can only talk to characters who were in the novel, the background people would just ignore them.

he said it was hell

the manager played the boss of Wolfram and Hart on Angel

Fun low-stakes episode.

I’m thinking now colonel Richey even if he played an investor he has nowhere to go.. just outside the doors..

Just 4 episodes away from one of the best villains in scifi, can’t wait!

I loved this episode. All the characters felt like themselves, like they’d finally become the characters we loved for the rest of the series. And this episode was plain fun. Not sure why it gets the hate. It’s all about the characters. And what a great setting! Characters trapped in a bad novel😄

Not sure about your theory about the story looping. Riker, Data, and Worf were the "foreigners" that the Asst Manager had been waiting for. The rest of the story couldn't continue until they'd arrived.

Definitely one of my favorite bad episodes. Really love how cheesy it is

Fantastic background, guys!

The hotel guy was on LOST. Come to think of it, the guy in the bed probably was too.

I like how they didn't overdo the confusion that the characters have with the old devices, etc. I feel like the first season went way too far at times with them not understanding old things. Like, just because MOST doors in the future may open automatically, you think people wouldn't maybe like the novelty of antique things and still use old manual doors? They at least here know what a hotel and a casino are. We have themed restaurants and theme parks made to look like something from another time NOW, so why wouldn't 24th century people do the same?

So since you're watching in release order, will you guys be watching the later TOS movies amongst episodes of TNG? And then at some point switch between TNG and DS9 episodes during the season they overlap?

You guys are so right - Sam Anderson is a great character actor. He turns up everywhere and rightly so. He's like the pizza guy - he always delivers.

I remember not liking the episode at all. But I appreciate it more now. Why? I kind of never had realized that it was a "bad" novel on purpose. Oh the irony.

Regarding DS9, it is sometimes darker (when appropriate), but that's because it was able to explore a lot more moral ambiguity than in other shows because it was made after Roddenberry had passed away and he was against that kind of thing. TOS and TNG laid a lot of groundwork for this universe and DS9 just takes what they built and goes into different directions. I am looking forward to when you get there.

why you watch show so slow... watch, record repeat .. dance monkey dance. thanks for what you do always fun to watch you guys react.

You guys definitely liked this one more than I thought you would. I figured you were going to be bored by it.

FYI, Tracy Torme is a he, not a she. (An easy mistake to make if you've only seen his name written. I know I was guilty of it.) He was the son of Mel Torme, a popular jazz singer in the 50s and 60s. Tracy Torme wrote a handful of episodes for Star Trek, probably most notably "The Big Goodbye" (likely listed as a consultant for this episode for the "Mickey D" dialogue). TV sci-fi buffs might also recognize him as the co-creator of Sliders. He passed away January 4th of this year.

Damn, animated backdrop, that is great!!! More of those!

Really appreciate the effort you put into your backgrounds

The "it was a dark and stormy night" cliche has extra meaning for me. My alma mater San Jose State has an annual contest to come up with "the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels" which was directly inspired by that line.

I love this episode, perhaps because it's a bit of goofy fun after boring or melodramatic episodes like Okona, Schizoid, Whisper, Dauphin but I like the twists, the music, and the weird Twilight Zone/TOS vibes. I second the comment about the episode falling flat after the reveal, but Data hamming it up while rolling the dice always makes me smile.

No. Next episode.

I know just how the away team felt. I managed to just about hold out until the episode ended and I could go about my life again. I understand why people may like this episode, but it always felt like season filler to me, despite an intriguing opening.

It's not a game for the faint of heart. Will you gamble with your life, in The Twilight Zone?

One of my guilty pleasures. Very Meta. The away team trapped in a world of cliches, in an episode that’s pieced together with ST cliches (It’s a NASA ship. Trapped away team. Alien culture makes a recreation based on what they think is “normal” human life.) but like Spock’s Brain, if it’s on I have to watch it. 😊