Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Star Trek: TNG Season 1 - The Neutral Zone

Link to StarTrek.com episode guide

This episode sets up a potential future adversary for the Federation and re-introduces the Romulan race (and does it so they are somewhat politically and psychologically complex species, as opposed to the treatment of the aliens in the Conspiracy episode.) The set up is a bit weak. We get some background and hear that they had dropped off the radar for a lot of years, but now they are back!

At the same time as this is going on, the episode throws in some issues about medical ethics. They take a look at the bigger picture of cryogenic technology and the long-tail effects of this. There is also the very mundane issue of whose job it is to maintain all the cryogenically frozen people and what happens if they run out of funding before a cure is found for whatever killed them? Who should decide when/if they get re-animated? How do they manage to re-integrate into society when/if they are re-animated? Would any of us really be prepared to re-start our lives at some point?

One of the frustrating things about this episode is that is just kind of wraps up without answering the mystery that it started with - the destruction of outposts in the Neutral Zone! The Enterprise shows up, a Romulan ship shows up. They talk. Neither claims responsibility. Then they both turn around and leave the area shrugging their shoulders. I can't remember if this simply sets up something for next season or not. Unfortunately, my fellow Trek fans, I am going to have to wait a while before finding out.

Cool Science/Tech:

  • While we don't see it, they refer to the Captain's shuttle.
  • The Romulan ship is very cool too!
Announcements:

  1. This will be my last Star Trek: The Next Generation post for a while. I will continue to do my Trek Tuesday movie posts. But, for a while anyways, the TV show posts will be on hiatus. Mostly, this is becuase we are finally catching up with some other shows. We've borrowed season 1 of Battlestar Gallactica, and feel we should watch that and return it before we continue on with the Star Trek stuff.
  2. When they resume, the posts will be moving to a new blog home. I'll be announcing my new blog home soon. Most things are set up already, but I still have a few more tweaks and things to finish off before officially opening the doors. Don't worry, I'll be letting you know when things are ready to go there.

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