Star Trek TNG S01E25 - Picard and Riker blow up an alien

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Zeke688@reddit

Coincidentally I liked the episodes better once Riker had facial hair. Or perhaps that’s not just a coincidence 🤔

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deowolf@reddit

It absolutely became a better show with the beard.

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SyrioForel@reddit

The official Star Trek website has a detailed page devoted to the beard and all that it represents:

https://www.startrek.com/news/how-do-we-define-will-rikers-beard

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Santa_Hates_You@reddit

Growing the Beard is literally a TV Trope for when a show starts to find its footing.

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“Riker’s Beard” is like a term opposite of “jumping the shark”… once riker got his beard, that’s when tng started to take off as a cohesive and well functioning series. The first season was good, don’t get me wrong… but it really developed some good characters and storylines after the first season. Still the best star trek series as far as overall quality, characters, storylines and sentimental… og still gets the groundbreaking favorite though.

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Zeke688@reddit

Yep. I loved the whole cat n mouse thing with Deanna Troi. Great character development

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fearless-penguin@reddit

The deana and worf was a bit out of left field… but then rewatching it years later… made some sense since she was very involved with alexander. The writing was absolutely top notch… and my only disappointment with anything of the series was how the movies didn’t stick to storylines of the show. Which is obviously no fault of the show.

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Shadow_NX@reddit

That episode... i always wondered how they get that gory affect approved, it felt so extremely violent and so very non Star Trek at least compared to other deaths in thsi series.

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Petraaki@reddit

I'm surprised my parents let me keep watching the show after this. It was super scary

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Squirrel_Master82@reddit

I just started rewatching this show last night, after not seeing it since it aired. So far, it's a lot worse than I remembered. I'm not giving up though.

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Esternaefil@reddit

I skipped season 1. Show starts to cook in season 2.

You don't really miss anything but Tasha.

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fearless-penguin@reddit

I didn’t miss her. She bugged… plus Worf being security officer made more sense and to be honest… dorn killed it as worf.

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Esternaefil@reddit

Sure, but Tasha does inform characters and stories throughout the series.

I agree I was not a Tasha fan either, but you might be a little confused when "yesterday's enterprise" comes around, etc.

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fearless-penguin@reddit

When the enterprise b (or c… I forget) timewarps into the enterprise D time and changes the whole timeline?

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Esternaefil@reddit

Yes indeed, Tasha plays a huge role in that episode, and it actually sets up later storylines.

Now, you can totally appreciate her as "different from Worf", but the scenes between her and Guinan won't be quite as clear.

That said, the episode is also her best performance as Tasha, so if that is all you get of her in your watch, you will probably appreciate her as a character a lot more than any of us who had to suffer through season 1.

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fearless-penguin@reddit

Oh no… I totally get that episode set off a whole storyline… particularly with the klingon/rommulan storyline. I just think as of season 1… her character was just not as good fit in that role as dorn did with worf being the security officer.

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ReggaeForPresident@reddit (OP)

There's a few stinkers, but overall it's high quality. I like how each individual episode is a self-contained story, yet there are larger story arcs that also develop throughout the series and extend beyond each individual episode.

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full_of_ghosts@reddit

I've never been into Star Trek. It's just not really my thing I love sci-fi, but I'm also very picky about sci-fi, and Star Trek doesn't check the boxes for me. So, this is the first time I've ever seen this, or even heard about it.

I'm shocked and maybe even a little horrified. Maybe my assumptions about Star Trek are wrong (which is certainly possible, given that I've never been into it), but I always thought it was supposed to be wholesome, family-friendly sci-fi. This is shockingly gory for 80s television.

(I kind of love the terrible stop-motion effects, though. They make that bug creature even more creepy than it would have been with better, more realistic effects.)

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chimpyjnuts@reddit

Is this the only time in all of Trek where a phaser makes someone go goo instead of just poof or knocking them out?

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noonesaidityet@reddit

When I was a kid I asked my mom if I could watch an episode of TNG, and it was this exact episode. I wasn't a fan, I just wanted to find something else besides what she wanted to watch at all times. It's the only episode of TNG I know. The bug thing and the head exploding where burned into my brain, and my mom said we weren't watching that show ever again.

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gooch_norris_@reddit

If I understand it correctly the original plan was to revisit this species as a recurring enemy but the idea became the Borg instead

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Cardboard_Robot@reddit

I read that too, although I wish there was still some kind of follow up to this episode. Such a heavy concept that went nowhere.

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bigfoot17@reddit

I'm still fucking pissed

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Cardboard_Robot@reddit

Maybe that’s what Season 2 of Picard should have been about, instead of that nonsense.

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Open-Cryptographer83@reddit

Think of the poor crewmate that has to clean that up.

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NightWriter500@reddit

They just cast prestidigitation.

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Open-Cryptographer83@reddit

Very well. So they clean 1 cubic foot of area around the room. It is still very gruesome around the room and the rest of the party is starting to become nauseous from the smell.

Everybody make a constitution saving throw.

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