First-Time Watch – Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 03, Episodes 04-06
Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast, in which I – a newbie to the Star Trek universe – am watching through Star Trek from the beginning, in release order, and discussing with some of my long-time Trekkie friends.
And this time, we have officially made it to TBG 050: the actual 50th episode*.
This week, we get:
Explanations for things we don’t understand
No man can step in the same river twice
Human intuition
We covered:
Who Watches the Watchers
The Bonding
Booby Trap
“Who Watches the Watchers” – Is Picard a god?
In “Who Watches the Watchers,” the Enterprise visits a hidden Federation observation post studying the Mintakans, a proto-Vulcan civilization that has not yet developed warp technology. When the observation post is damaged, the Prime Directive gets very messy very quickly, and Captain Picard accidentally becomes the center of a new religious belief.
This episode gave us a lot to talk about. It is clearly critical of religion, but the question becomes: is it wrong? Or, at least, is it unfair?
A lot of the episode centers on explanations for things people do not understand. When something impossible seems to happen, what do people do with that information? Do they build a theory? Do they build a faith? Do they build a god? And how different is that from what any of us do when we hit the limits of our own knowledge?
Some of our talking points:
The episode’s critique of religion
Whether that critique feels fair or too simplistic
Explanations for things we do not know
Knowledge problems and the limits of understanding
Physics limitations and how people interpret impossible events
Picard as an accidental god figure
Star Trek jiu jitsu
The Prime Directive creating yet another impossible problem
Distracted watching vs. rewatching episodes with better attention
The value of welcoming questions
“The Tucker and Dale vs. Evil of religion”
Crusher vs. Pulaski
Somehow: lionfish
This is one of those classic Star Trek setups where the philosophical problem is more interesting than the plot mechanics. The Enterprise crew knows the “truth,” but the Mintakans are trying to make sense of the same events from a much more limited frame of reference.
And that is where the episode works best: not just asking whether superstition is bad, but asking what any of us do when reality seems bigger than our ability to explain it.
“The Bonding” – Grief, loss, and not knowing how to read the episode
“The Bonding” follows the Enterprise after an away mission goes wrong and a crew member is killed, leaving behind her young son, Jeremy Aster. The episode becomes less about the mission itself and more about grief, trauma, memory, and the ways people try to comfort someone after an impossible loss.
This was a harder episode to get a clean read on.
On one hand, it deals with universal themes. Loss, childhood grief, found family, and the desire to undo tragedy are all powerful ideas. On the other hand, the execution does not always make it easy to know how we are supposed to feel about the story.
Some of our talking points:
Not having a good read on the episode
Whether this represents a turning point for Star Trek: The Next Generation
Life events impacting how we receive episodes
Grief and loss as universal themes
How our ratings can change over time
Ronald D. Moore’s impact on Star Trek
The emotional weight of the premise
Whether the episode fully earns that emotional weight
This episode also gave us a chance to talk about Ronald D. Moore, who wrote “The Bonding” and would go on to become one of the major creative voices in Star Trek. Even if this episode does not fully land for everyone, it feels like part of the show’s evolution into something deeper and more emotionally ambitious.
It is also the kind of episode that may depend heavily on when you watch it. Different life experiences can make the same story hit very differently. No man can step in the same river twice, and sometimes no viewer can watch the same episode the same way twice either.
“Booby Trap” – Ships in bottles, ancient traps, and creepy Geordi
In “Booby Trap,” the Enterprise investigates the ruins of an ancient battle and becomes trapped by a centuries-old automated weapon system. With the ship slowly losing power and options running out, Geordi works with a holographic recreation of Dr. Leah Brahms to find a way out.
This episode has a lot of cool ideas. Ancient space battles. A lost civilization. A trap that still works long after the war is over. The Enterprise stuck in a problem that cannot simply be solved with brute force. Picard getting excited about ships in bottles. On paper, that is a great setup.
But the execution felt like it was missing something.
Some of our talking points:
The cool premise of the ancient booby trap
Good ideas with uneven execution
Picard taking the controls
Picard’s love of ships in bottles
Human intuition as the thing technology cannot quite replace
Geordi’s awkward relationship with the holographic Leah Brahms
Creepy Geordi
The episode feeling like it needed one more pass
Tommy Boy
Chris Farley, John Candy, John Belushi, and Rick Moranis
The strongest part of the episode may be the idea that the Enterprise cannot calculate its way out of every problem. Sometimes the answer is not just raw data, but instinct, judgment, and human intuition. That is a very Star Trek idea, even if the surrounding story does not completely come together.
And then there is Geordi.
The holographic Leah Brahms material gives the episode one of its more memorable elements, but also one of its more uncomfortable ones. The intent may be to give Geordi a connection and a problem-solving partner, but it plays strangely, especially looking back at it now.
Final Thoughts
This batch gave us three very different episodes.
“Who Watches the Watchers” is a Prime Directive and religion episode with a strong philosophical hook. “The Bonding” is an emotional grief episode that may be more important as a sign of where the franchise is heading than as a fully successful individual story. “Booby Trap” has a great sci-fi premise, a very Picard-y love of ships in bottles, and some Geordi material that does not age particularly well.
Together, they make for a fitting episode 50: thoughtful, uneven, funny, philosophical, and full of the kinds of tangents that make this podcast what it is.
As always, remember - Never give up! Never surrender!
Listen to this episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Where we are on our Trek:
Last week we covered:
Next week we will continue with:
TBG Episode 051 - Star Trek TNG S03E07-09 The Enemy, The Price, The Vengeance Factor - “The Fiftieth*” | First Time Watch-Through
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.