First-Time Watch – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, Episodes 16-18
This week, we continue our first-time, release-order journey through Star Trek with three episodes from the fourth season of The Next Generation.
We begin with the arrival of the real Dr. Leah Brahms, forcing Geordi to confront the difference between a person and the idealized version he created on the holodeck. We then find the Enterprise trapped in space as its increasingly sleep-deprived crew begins to lose control. Finally, Geordi investigates the disappearance of former crewmates from an away mission that took place five years earlier.
This week, we get:
World building for the fans
A potentially interesting, but possibly underdeveloped idea
Incomplete victories
We covered:
Galaxy’s Child
Night Terrors
Identity Crisis
Galaxy’s Child
Dr. Leah Brahms visits the Enterprise to examine the modifications Geordi has made to the ship’s engines. Geordi expects an immediate connection with the woman whose holodeck recreation once helped him escape a deadly situation, but the real Dr. Brahms is considerably less interested in fulfilling his expectations.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise encounters a massive space-dwelling life-form and accidentally kills it while trying to defend the ship. After discovering that the creature was pregnant, the crew must find a way to save its newborn offspring—and prevent the baby from draining the Enterprise of its energy.
Things we discussed:
Empanadas or calzones?
Creepy Geordi
Differences between Geordi and Barclay?
Easter eggs for fans without detracting from new viewers
Speed and distance in Star Trek
Radiation measurements
Picard’s speech on destroying a life-form
Guinan messing with Geordi
Character developments as the series progresses
Night Terrors
The Enterprise discovers the USS Brattain adrift in space with nearly its entire crew dead. The only survivor is a Betazoid who is so traumatized that he cannot explain what happened aboard the ship.
The Enterprise soon becomes trapped in the same region of space, and its crew gradually loses the ability to enter the stage of sleep necessary for dreaming. As paranoia, exhaustion and hallucinations spread throughout the ship, Troi’s recurring dream may provide the only way to communicate with another vessel caught in the same phenomenon.
Things we discussed:
Reminiscent of other episodes
An interesting, underdeveloped idea—maybe?
Nate breaks down ship classes and crew numbers
Real-life lessons from Star Trek episodes
Old Star Trek DVDs from China
Identity Crisis
Five years after participating in an away mission on Tarchannen III, members of Geordi’s former team begin abandoning their lives and mysteriously returning to the planet. Geordi reunites with Susanna Leijten to investigate what happened during their original mission.
When Leijten and Geordi begin undergoing the same transformation as their missing crewmates, the Enterprise uses its records and the holodeck to reconstruct an encounter no one realized had occurred. The crew finds a way to reverse the transformation, but the conclusion leaves us wondering how complete their victory actually was.
Things we discussed:
How I Met Your Mother discussion
Geordi could have done everything from Sickbay
More Enterprise security issues
Shuttlepod/shuttlecraft discussion
A semi-successful resolution
Earth: Final Conflict
Final Thoughts
These episodes provide three very different examples of victories that do not completely resolve the problems that created them. The Enterprise saves the newborn creature in “Galaxy’s Child,” but only after killing its parent. The crew escapes the phenomenon in “Night Terrors,” although the episode leaves parts of its central idea unexplored. Geordi is cured in “Identity Crisis,” but the fate of the transformed beings on Tarchannen III remains unresolved.
“Galaxy’s Child” also demonstrates how The Next Generation can reward longtime viewers through returning characters and continuing relationships without making that history inaccessible to new viewers. Together, the three episodes give us fan-focused world building, intriguing ideas of varying levels of development and several victories that come with important qualifications.
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:
Also, be sure to check out Nate’s and my other podcast – The In Lap with Aaron and Nate – to listen to us discuss all things Formula 1 on race weekends, wherever you listen to your podcasts.