First-Time Watch – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5, Episodes 16–18
This week on The To Baldly Go Podcast, Aaron and Nate continue their release-order journey through Star Trek with three more episodes of The Next Generation: Ethics, The Outcast, and Cause and Effect.
We're tackling questions of honor, parenthood, medical ethics, and the responsibilities we have to the people around us. Then we shift gears to a fantastic time-loop story, a familiar face from '90s television, and a discussion that takes us well beyond the Star Trek universe.
This week, we get:
Worf facing a crisis of honor and responsibility
Ethical questions surrounding experimental medicine and euthanasia
A repeating time loop and a very memorable guest appearance
Plenty of tangents about poker, Gargoyles, and early '90s television
We covered:
Ethics
When Worf suffers a severe spinal injury, he faces a decision that challenges his identity as a Klingon warrior. His understanding of honor conflicts with his responsibilities as a father, particularly when it comes to Alexander.
We discuss the episode's exploration of experimental medicine, informed consent, and euthanasia. While the premise offers plenty of interesting ethical questions, we weren't particularly impressed with the execution. Did the writers force the story toward the outcome they wanted? And how much of the tension disappears when we're already assuming Worf will survive?
Of course, we also find ourselves discussing Geordi's poker abilities and taking an extended detour into the animated series Gargoyles.
Things we discussed:
Worf's honor versus his responsibilities to Alexander
Experimental treatments, euthanasia, and informed consent
Why the storytelling felt forced
Whether knowing Worf would survive affected the stakes
Why we wouldn't want to play poker with Geordi
Gargoyles and its Star Trek connections
The Outcast
We continue through Season 5 with The Outcast, another entry in our first-time Star Trek watchthrough.
Cause and Effect
What happens when the Enterprise gets caught in a repeating time loop? Apparently, you get one of our favorite episodes of the season.
Cause and Effect delivers a clever, engaging story that uses déjà vu and subtle changes between repeated events to keep the audience invested. We loved how the episode unfolded, and the poker scenes gave us plenty to discuss.
Then there's Kelsey Grammer. His appearance sends us into a discussion about Cheers, familiar faces from early '90s television, and the sometimes surprising connections between Star Trek and other entertainment.
We also branch into Memento, time-loop movies, Babylon 5, and even the Star Trek/X-Men crossover.
Things we discussed:
Why Cause and Effect worked so well
Déjà vu and repeating time loops
The poker scenes and their role in the story
Kelsey Grammer and his memorable appearance
Memento and other time-loop stories
Early '90s television
Babylon 5
The Star Trek/X-Men crossover
Final Thoughts
Ethics and Cause and Effect provide two very different viewing experiences. One raises important ethical questions but struggles with its execution, while the other takes a familiar science-fiction concept and turns it into a terrific hour of television.
And along the way, we somehow manage to cover Klingon honor, poker strategy, Gargoyles, Kelsey Grammer, Babylon 5, and the X-Men.
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.