First-Time Watch – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episodes 19–21
We're back with three more episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation as we continue our first-time, release-order journey through the franchise!
This week brings us a surprisingly thoughtful exploration of truth and responsibility, another visit from the wonderfully chaotic Lwaxana Troi, and an episode that leaves us wondering whether anyone aboard the Enterprise has ever considered locking a door.
This week, we get:
The moral, ethical, and legal codes
Chaotic benevolence
Enterprise security is awful and leads to some mediocre stories
We covered:
The First Duty (S5E19)
Cost of Living (S5E20)
The Perfect Mate (S5E21)
The First Duty
Wesley Crusher returns to the spotlight when a training accident at Starfleet Academy leads to an investigation into the actions of his flight team. What follows is a compelling exploration of the conflict between loyalty, honesty, and personal responsibility.
We spend considerable time discussing the differences between moral, ethical, and legal obligations. Is Wesley required to disclose information that could incriminate him? Does withholding the truth constitute lying? And what happens when your obligations to your friends conflict with your responsibility to tell the truth?
The episode also challenges our opinions of Wesley, giving us an opportunity to explore his character beyond the familiar role he occupied aboard the Enterprise. It's an interesting character study, and one that has us hoping we haven't seen the last of him.
Naturally, we also find time to discuss doors and door handles.
Things we discussed:
Moral and ethical codes versus legal obligations
Whether Wesley is required to offer self-incriminating evidence
Lies of omission and the responsibility to tell the truth
Challenging our opinions of Wesley Crusher
The appeal of a 24th-century courtroom drama
Interesting character studies and the future of Wesley in TNG
Doors and door handles
Cost of Living
Lwaxana Troi returns to the Enterprise, and with her comes the usual combination of eccentricity, disruption, and unexpected wisdom.
This episode attempts to juggle several different stories, including Lwaxana's impending marriage, her relationship with Alexander, and the ongoing difficulties of Worf's parenting. Unfortunately, not all of these threads feel particularly necessary, leaving us with a collection of smaller vignettes that might not have justified full episodes on their own.
Still, there's something appealing about Lwaxana's chaotic benevolence. Her approach to Alexander is unconventional, but she manages to connect with him in ways Worf often struggles to accomplish. Is Lwaxana actually a better parent than Worf?
We also discuss the memorable mud bath, an unexpected connection to Jimmy James from NewsRadio, and the surprising realization that Lwaxana has steadily grown on us.
Things we discussed:
Lwaxana doing Lwaxana things
Chaotic benevolence and unconventional parenting
Lwaxana's relationship with Alexander
Why Lwaxana might be a better parent than Worf
The episode's collection of loosely connected vignettes
Whether the various stories contributed to the overall episode
Sitting in a mud bath
Jimmy James from NewsRadio running for president so he can get married
Lwaxana growing on us
The Perfect Mate
Sometimes an episode gives us plenty to discuss because it's particularly compelling. Other times, it gives us plenty to discuss because almost anything else would be more interesting.
Unfortunately, The Perfect Mate falls into the latter category.
The Enterprise hosts a diplomatic mission involving a mysterious passenger, but the story quickly raises some familiar questions about security aboard Starfleet's flagship. Once again, visitors seem to have remarkable freedom to wander around and create problems that perhaps could have been avoided with even the most basic precautions.
This leads us back to one of our recurring complaints: Enterprise security is terrible. How many incidents could have been prevented if somebody simply restricted access to sensitive areas?
The episode also inspires a collection of tangents, including Famke Janssen's connection to Jean Grey, the surprising existence of dolphins aboard the Enterprise, and comparisons to a similar story from The Original Series.
In the end, the conversations surrounding the episode prove considerably more interesting than the episode itself.
Things we discussed:
Why The Perfect Mate didn't work for us
Enterprise security and its seemingly endless failures
Visitors wandering around the Enterprise
Whether poor security creates unnecessary storytelling problems
Jean Grey saying "mutant"
The existence of dolphins aboard the Enterprise
Similarities to an episode of The Original Series
Why almost anything else was more interesting than the actual story
Final Thoughts
This week's episodes provide an interesting contrast in storytelling quality.
The First Duty gives us an engaging character study and some worthwhile questions about honesty, loyalty, and responsibility. Cost of Living is a more uneven experience, but Lwaxana's particular brand of wisdom continues to make her an increasingly welcome presence.
The Perfect Mate, meanwhile, reminds us just how often the Enterprise's security procedures seem to exist solely at the convenience of the plot.
Three episodes, plenty of tangents, and another week of discovering what Star Trek has to offer.
Join us as we continue our first-time journey through Star Trek in release order!
Never give up. Never surrender.
Where we are on our Trek:
Last week we covered:
Next week we will continue with:
If you want to see my journey from the very beginning, start here:
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