Tom Salinsky

TNG S05E19 The First Duty (). Yay, Wesley’s back, victim of an accident too expensive to portray on-screen. High class guest star Ray Walston (My Favourite Martian, The Apartment, Silver Streak) appears as Boothby the gardener and future Voyager regular Robert Duncan McNeill makes his Star Trek debut as Tom Paris Nicholas Locarno. Picard’s chats with Boothby are detailed and well-acted but seem irrelevant as they don’t impact the present. Wesley’s handwringing over whether or not to listen to Tom Nick also doesn’t play particularly strongly as the outcome is never in doubt (“I know you were telling the truth, but the satellite data makes it look as if you were lying,” bleats Beverly inanely). I honestly fail to see what’s so special about either this character or this actor, but we’ll get to Voyager another day.

TNG S05E20 Cost of Living (). In an almost James Bond-like move we join the bridge crew in the middle of their last mission and smash into the titles as soon as they’ve finished the job. The real story is about Lwaxana who is taking Alexander under her wing, and planning her wedding onboard ship (because this is the story we tell with this character). Marina Sirtis has developed an easy chemistry with Majel Barrett who always brings her A-game. But in a trope that goes back to the very earliest episodes of TOS (and which we’ve seen more than once this season) a visual effect has snuck on board the ship, no doubt with malign intent. While we wait for them to get up to their pixelated mischief we have to suffer through Lwaxana and Alexander’s sojourn on the Holodeck which is aggressively tedious. “The higher the fewer” is Carroll-esque nonsense from late 19th century Britain. Troi’s parenting contract sounds like the kind of thing a male writer with no kids would come up with.

TNG S05E21 The Perfect Mate (). Whew, it’s all go for the Enterprise. Warring factions, distressed miners and a Ferengi shuttle seemingly in distress. One of the rescued Ferengi is Max Grodénchik who we’ll be seeing more of before long. Ambassador Briam of the Zagbars has brought some valuable cargo on board with which to broker the peace with the Zoobles. This cargo turns out to be Xenia Onatopp who is being offered as a mate to secure the agreement. This is obviously ick, and luckily the bridge crew seem to understand this and raise some (fairly feeble) objections to this kind of “human” trafficking before Riker shows her to her quarters – what could possibly go wrong? Cue much handwringing and soul-searching about whether she is a victim of exploitation or a willing participant in a necessary political alliance. The usual patriarchal bullshit is all present and correct (Famke’s trip to Ten Forward would make Sean Connery look politely deferential), and the debate is given a token amount of depth and complexity. There’s precious little drama though and it is hard to avoid just how ick it all is. Famke Janssen was offered the part of Dax on DS9 but turned it down, although Terry Farrell ended up inheriting her makeup.

TNG S05E22 Imaginary Friend (). Moppets. Now stop me if you’ve heard this one, but one of the Enterprise’s youngest inhabitants is having mild emotional issues when a strange glowy thing that looks like Automan’s cursor appears on board and suddenly what were previously just fantasies become real and solid while the Enterprise’s systems start behaving oddly. While new combinations of old ideas can feel fresh and exciting, this has a real “will this do?” energy to it, which I haven’t felt before. Early episodes failed sometimes because they were trying too hard. An episode which has dated badly like The Perfect Mate at least has its heart in the right place. This isn’t trying to do anything except use up another 45 minutes. After the shot of vinegar which I so appreciated in the first episodes of this season, the mawkish sentimentality of this outing is even more disappointing. I’m tempted to mark it down even further, but it’s competent enough and if you picked an episode of TNG to watch at random, you probably would like it more. I just feel let down because of how few new ideas are present and because of how strongly this season started.

TNG S05E23 I, Borg (). In a reversal of my feelings about the previous episode, here we have an idea which now feels like it’s been done to death – actually that implacable foe, the very essence of evil, turns out to be a future ally we just haven’t made friends with yet – but which at the time, Klingons notwithstanding, still felt very fresh. The real achievement of this outstanding episode is humanising the Borg while not reducing the threat which they represent. It’s a remarkable piece of storytelling which portrays the Borg as both victim and aggressor, while positioning Picard as pulled between his compassion and his personal hatred in a genuinely fascinating way. In fact, almost everyone on board has an interesting reaction to the presence of a tame Borg, from Crusher to Guinan. “Hugh” calls himself “Third of Five” which prefigures the name of a regular character on Voyager, but she was “Seven of Nine” not “Seventh of Nine”.

TNG S05E24 The Next Phase (). Once again Ro Laren is pissing off everyone around her before a rescue mission to bail out some Romulans goes pear-shaped and she and Geordi are seemingly lost beaming back on board the ship. In fact, she and Geordi are “out of phase” with the Enterprise and the rest of the crew, able to walk its corridors but not be seen or interact with anyone. If you think this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s a virtual remake of the TOS episode The Tholian Web, even down to funeral arrangements being made for the two missing crew members. The choice of Ro is an inspired one. By this stage, she feels like a regular member of the crew, but by the rules of television she could die and that raises the stakes enormously. You do have to wonder why people “out of phase” are solid to the Enterprise’s floors (and shuttles) but not its walls or view screens, but that seems like an uninteresting thing to worry about when the story is this good, with the resolution provided by a very nifty twist that’s hard to seeing coming. About the only thing I don’t like is how professional everyone is. I thought we’d got to the point where we could see our characters let the guards down a bit more under extreme stress (like losing two colleagues or being thought dead).

TNG S05E25 The Inner Light (). It’s barely a minute before the bridge of the Enterprise vanishes and Picard finds himself in a domestic setting he doesn’t recognise. On its face, this is another one of those “cover of a comic book” set-ups which we know can’t be the truth. But the details of Picard’s new life as he gradually learns to forget the man he was are intricately woven. It’s almost a loss when he does snap back to Star Fleet and it’s easy to imagine that the life he lived over several decades is going to be something he carries with him forever – indeed, future episodes show him playing that flute. I’m only mildly disappointed that we cut back to the bridge and see the crew desperately trying to recover the captain at all (I’d forgotten that this happened), but this is still a truly remarkable hour of television. I’m amazed that anyone pitched it and I’m astonished that anyone as risk-averse as Berman allowed it to proceed, but I’m incredibly grateful that they both did. By any measure, this is a masterpiece.

TNG S05E26 Time’s Arrow (). How about this for a teaser? Picard and Data are poking about in a cavern on 24th century Earth, looking at relics from the 19th century. Among the haul – Data’s lifeless disembodied head! Boom. Inevitably, the crew’s attempts to unravel this mystery cause the circumstance they are desperate to avoid to come about. Data is translated to San Francisco of 1893 and there’s some budget left at the end of the season to give us some lovely-looking location filming. His adventures in the past are highly entertaining – “I am a Frenchman” – and it’s one of those great intractable problems that are so much fun. It’s a different approach to the end-of-season cliff-hanger as well. Instead of massive jeopardy for people we care about, it’s just a question of “Gosh, what will happen now?” Which is cool if a little bit under-powered.

TNG S06E01 Time’s Arrow, Part II (). Compared certainly to The Best of Both Worlds, this feels far more purposeful and planned with arbitrary details in part one that don’t pay off at all until part two (like that couple who go around zapping vagrants with a handbag) and the general tone of levity is engagingly maintained. Picard, Riker, Crusher, Geordi and Troi have integrated into 19th century society with appealing ease (Geordi’s visor notwithstanding) and it’s great fun to see for example the doughty landlady not taking any more nonsense from that silver-tonged “Mr Pickard”. However, the writers of this episode seem to have forgotten that Sam Clemens not only overheard Data and Guinan talking about their true origins, but also that he fessed up to them immediately. Additionally, the final act depends enormously for its impact on the about-face performed by Clemens, but this isn’t really given the space or time it needs, what with all the other time-hopping and technobabble. Ultimately, while it’s enjoyable enough, it feels a bit low-key for both a season opener and a resolution to an epic two-parter.

Season 5 wrap-up

• This season got off to a very strong start with some well-remembered episodes, a new darker tone and the return of Spock all in the first third. The rest of the season isn’t quite so consistent, with an over-reliance on moppets, some attempts to confront social issues which have aged very badly, and a slight feeling of exhaustion creeping in towards the end. The upshot of all of that is the season average comes in at 3.5, about the same as 3 and 4, and still not eclipsing that epic first season of TOS.
• Despite that, there’s definitely a greater complexity and imagination on display in the best of these episodes: successes like Ensign Ro, Unification, Cause and Effect, Conundrum and even Darmok don’t feel like anything the series has done before, and if most of the regular characters have “topped out”  by now, there’s seemingly no limit to the depths of Jean-Luc Picard as episodes like I, Borg and The Inner Light
• But it’s disappointing to be still getting limp outings like Hero Worship, The Game and Imaginary Friend. While it isn’t true that there are no successful episodes in the first two years, it also isn’t true that everything from Season 3 onwards is a banger and Violations is criminally bad.
• Where now? Will the series keep doing what works, or start shaking things up even more? And what’s this about Paramount worrying about rising costs and thinking about a TNG movie…?