Weekend Roundup #9

Apparently it's March now. I'm not quite sure how that happened. This means there are only ten months left in My Year Of Star Trek. Are you getting worried about whether or not I'm going to get all the episodes in? Are you starting to feel a little nervous? Don't worry about that. Save your anxiety for October. Here's what I did this week:

#14- Angel One
-This is the episode where an entire planet is matriarchal and all the ladies want to maintain the status quo. I think this is actually a pretty great idea for a Star Trek. 
-Watch it if only to see Up-For-Anything-Riker put on a flouncy pirate shirt and codpiece whilst using the old "When In Rome" adage as an excuse for playing dress-up.

"What? You act as if this is more ridiculous than my usual outfit!" 

#15- 11001001
-Another awesome Riker episode. This time he spends the day chatting up a hologram while the ship is stolen and driven to the other side of the galaxy.
-Great job, Number One!

#16- Too Short A Season
-This episode features a young guy in old guy make up. Basically, several years ago, he ignored the Prime Directive and gave a bunch of guns to some terrorists who'd kidnapped some Starfleet colonists. To "even it up" he also gave guns to their enemies. Forty years later, it's all blowing up in his face.
-Captain Kirk did this exact same thing back in TOS but, as far as I know, he never had to dress up in old guy makeup to correct his mistake. He just became an admiral and saved the world a few times.

#17-When The Bough Breaks
-The "best and most talented" children of the Enterprise are kidnapped by sterile aliens.
-This one really makes me wonder how the parents of the kids who didn't get picked feel. Talk about conflicted. I picture a lot of heated arguments in Ten Forward that go like this:
"At least your kid wasn't kidnapped!"
"Oh yeah, at least your kid was smart enough to get kidnapped!"

#18- Home Soil
-Terraforming, mysterious conspiracies, and a brand new sentient species of life all make this one a pretty great TNG episode. Totally worth watching.

#19- Coming Of Age
-Yay! A Wesley episode. I know a lot of people get pissy about Wesley and like to make fun of the poor kid but he's so earnest and sweet in these early episodes, I can't help but like him.
-I find myself saying, "Aw, bless his heart," a lot in this one.

If I'd had a holodeck to brood in when I was 15, I could've got into Starfleet too. 

#20- Heart of Glory
-This one's worth watching just so you can see the world the way Geordi sees it. You can be entranced and mystified by it just like Picard who gets all questiony while Geordi's supposed to be on an away mission.

#21- The Arsenal of Freedom
-This episode features an awesome exchange about the "Good Ship Lollipop."
-Geordi spends a huge portion of this episode in charge. He begins the tradition of any time someone isn't Picard and they're placed in command, they separate the saucer section. Riker would continue this proud tradition with amazing/explosive results.

"This ship could fly twice as high if there were only half as much of it!"

#22- Symbiosis
-Wow, this guy looks a lot like Peter Weller. Oh, I've said that before about this guy. He also played Khan's #2 in Wrath of Khan.
-This features an actually great scene between Tasha and Wesley where she explains why people end up getting hooked on drugs in a way that is surprisingly not an after school special.
-This episode, not Skin of Evil, was the last episode she shot.

#23- Skin of Evil
-This episode is all about the harsh realities of death. It's not well-reviewed by critics but it was a formative episode for me. I think it's worth watching.

#24- We'll Always Have Paris
-This is a great, "I've messed with the space-time continuum and now I'm paying the price" episode.
-Yes, that's a thing.
-This is also an excellent Picard episode.

#25- Conspiracy
-Watch this one to see Riker get in a kickboxing match with an old guy. Spoiler- he loses.
-This episode totally creeped me out as a kid.
-This one is actually really great. Star to finish it's interesting, engaging, and creepy.

So, it looks like I did eleven episodes this week and that keeps me on track. I'm loving this re-watch of TNG. My biggest problem so far is holding back. I need to cap it at three or four a day but I could easily watch seven of these in a row.