Francie

No, that's low, and I'm certain Joel would never do that. I like the fact that I haven't worked out how it will happen, which means it's no so obvious. But there was a reason they showed last season that Mei's family was too dangerous to get messed up with. If I had to imagine the scenario now, it's either that: 1) Mei's family feels some sympathy for Joel and what's he's going through. I don't think they took any pleasure in beating him to a pulp, because he confronted them because he loved their daughter so much. Additionally, he's still their tenant, which makes him part of their extended. He brings them money and keeps their secret. It could just be a "he's a white guy pain in the ass who works upstairs, but he's *our* white guy pain in the ass who works upstairs" kind of thing. 2) Mei can return home -- whether on screen or off -- and learn or perceive what's going on and intervene. She would take care of the situation in a hot second. Look, I'm still waiting for Mei to return, regardless what the show runners say. I've been waiting to hear a "I'm/you're Mei Maisal" line for at least two years now. I'd like to think the show runners have been playing the long game on that.

Susie mentioned once, under her breath, having gone to law school. She's a rare individual who grew up in very modest circumstances, had street smarts and was on her own since she was young, and then went to college. And learned to ice skate. And play classical piano. The woman has talents and depths. It seems like Susie reinvented herself as a more polished Susan in college. But somehow she got knocked down and retreated back to her Susie roots. Whether it was the heartbreak or something more, maybe we'll find out.

I don't think there's any good narrative reason for it. Sidney hugged Seven because Seven is TM's favored character. Of course she'd get the attention and not the sister. Unfortunately, Alandra only existed to give Geordi two daughters, because apparently having two children made him less incel than just the one. That was her sole purpose, and she was otherwise an afterthought to the showrunners.

Man, Alex Bortsein got to me. What a performance at the end there. I felt her heartbreak, hard. I've been waiting for the shoe to drop with Nicky and Frank, and I'm glad it's happening early enough on this season. I've dreaded seeing how bad they could be, because I didn't want darkness this season to ruin re-watches of earlier seasons. I need Joel to figure out what's going on and call in some chips with Mei's family. I really want to see Mei again, too.

I like that sentiment. I honestly hope I can wipe my memory of this season. Nothing happened - there wasn't a single moment where I thought -- oh, I want to revisit that. Every moment that starting leaning toward something I would appreciate would immediately be cut short or turned into a joke. I felt like the show runners were only using the TNG characters, other than "Frakes"* and Worf, to the extent they were contractually obligated. *The showrunners weren't writing for Riker. Other than the wholly new "my boy! My dear boy male son who is dead ... and a boy!" angst, they were writing Frakes into the scripts. My big take away of having watched this series: Rotten Tomatoes no longer has any credibility with me. I can't say I relied on it much, but I did use it as a casual reference tool. This season received a 100% fresh rating. That seemed to have been the result of show runners picking and choosing many sycophantic publications that were approved as reviewers and scraping by with only the most slightly positive ratings from more mainstream publications (Rolling Stone, TV Guide, etc.). Regardless, I'll never trust a high collective rating score ever again.

It’s dawned on me that the closest this season had to some sort of meaning, or message, or theme, was this: The most important relationship in the world is that of a man and his son, and men must be vigilant to protect and support their sons against the women, both domestic and foreign – err, I mean both within their family and outside, who want to keep them apart. Witness, Beverly kept Jack from Picard, and robbed him of a son for 34 23 years, although ultimately she was forgiven for this transgression. Deanna prevented Will from grieving his dead boy son, for which she asked forgiveness, and it was given. And the two villains were Over-the-Top Amanda, who wanted Jean-Luc’s son, and the borg queen, who also wanted Jean-Luc’s son. I doubt TM even realizes that’s what he created and what personal issues he may have been working through. And maybe he wasn’t at all. But stripped away of the nostalgia and the pandering to the male actor’s wishes (Brent wanted the “this is your life” moment for Data and to have him become human; Levar wanted to erase the incel background for Geordie and Michael Dorn wanted to be badass like some character in Kill Bill, and who can blame him), what we’re left with is a story of "boys," or in this case a 30+ year-old man who's treated like a boy and another boy’s memory, being unjustly and sometimes violently taken away from a good man.

Before she died, Majel spent hours upon hours recording words upon words and hosts of phrases so that her voice could be used in future Trek endeavors. So there's a catalogue, indexed and ready to go. When J.J. Abrams resurrected Trek, he decided not to use it.

The place invented in, like, 1970? It's no Paris or Venice. Its inclusion was as a joke. Haha, isn't it funny to think of the tourist trap that is Orlando still be relevant in year 2500? I think a better haha, wink, wink moment might have been Troi saying she's always wanted to visit London. Using today's generational classifications, aside from Raffi and Seven (and maybe that TrueValue guy?), the only ones who lived were 7 boomers (or, rather, 6 boomers and an android who looks like a boomer) and Gen Z. Generations Millennials and X were wiped out. The title "The Last Generation," is much more apropos than possibly intended.

Given how much Orlando as a vacation spot has been in the news of late, not very prescient of these showrunners back in 2022. A rule of Roddenberry's that the TNG writers took to heart even after his passing -- no out-of-time idioms. No "above my pay grade" type of sayings. Certainly an attempt at a pop culture reference like this would never have been thought as funny. No hehe, wouldn't it be funny to think that people will still be going to vacation in Orlando in the 25th century. God. These showrunners are 12, aren't they?

With this episode closing out the show, we learn that all things must come to an end, and not just the good ones. What can I say about Jack? Jack is easily the worst addition of a kid to a series since Cousin Oliver. Riker's near dying words: Me and my boy! Me: This fucking guy.

I'll try to get us back on track: The more I think about this episode, the more I realize it sucks donkey's balls. The only thing salvageable are the last four minutes spent on the Enterprise-D bridge. And the dialogue is so dreadful (whoever said it was characters waiting around to say their one line of exposition was spot on), that the only way to salvage that is to extract the video and set it to music. So I'm waiting for someone to get on that and post that to youtube. I would, but I have a case of the olds.

If the writing on this show were a sentient being, it'd be a turkey drowning in a puddle because it was too stupid to lift up its own head.

Much like somebody else's poor planning does not constitute my emergency, the showrunner's poor decisions and insulting casting or writing choices do not constitute a requirement that I engage in deliberate obtuseness. Honestly, I’m going to go with zero. Unpacking your post, the episodes that had Troi as a “central component” were typically ones dealing with her social life (Haven, the Price, Masterpiece Society, Second Changes, her mother episodes), or an alien assaulting or otherwise taking her over (the Child, Violations, Man of the People). And then there’s the Loss and Face of the Enemy. The later is probably the one episode where Troi was allowed to shine. The former was designed to be an exploration into a sudden disability. None of those were simply about Troi’s empathic senses.* Conversely, the PicardS3 ‘counseling’ by Troi was anything but actual counseling. That entire scene was designed as nothing more than a stretching out and build up of the reveal of what was affecting Jack. There was no psychological analysis by Troi, as Troi’s empathic powers morphed into some sort of ability to see into his thoughts as visions. There was no point to her being there as a trained psychologist or as a diplomacy, first contact, or alien/human behavior expert. She was just the vessel for channeling this image. That whole revelation that the borg was behind this should have been a momentary reveal, somewhere around the 20-minute mark of a 45-60 minute story. The villain is revealed, act 1 is done, and then on to act 2 where the heroes rally to defeat the villain. Instead, it was 3 or so tortuous moments of Troi coaxing Jack to show her what was behind this metaphorical door. *And if your post is a reference all those moments where an alien would show up and Picard would ask what she sensed were appropriate plot checks—momentary check ins that sometimes assisted with the moving along the narrative, but often times were safeguards by the writers so as to not have a huge gaping plot hole (unlike PicardS3). I would argue those were never "drawn out" nor a "central component" to an episode. I had the opposite reaction. We all know the Under26ers are going to be saved. Because LaForge's kids were assimilated. In the meantime, every being on that ship over the age of 25 not named Raffi or Seven or part of the original E-D crew was just brutally murdered. Unless there's a time travel solution, all those people will remain dead. And that seems a bit hostile to anyone over the age of 25. So, if Troi were a male, would the showrunners have written him as getting overly emotional and running out of the room? Just asking. How that scene with Troi telling Picard and Gates should have gone:: Troi: You'll never believe that I saw behind that door! Picard [unfazed]: Was it the borg? [simultaneously} Gate [not looking up from some prop tricorder]: The borg? Troi [equally unimpressed]: Yes, of course it was the borg. Also, I put Jack in a stasis chamber with a forcefield to keep him from doing any harm.

I'm imagining any daily conversations between the two of them going like this: Logan: Are you going to sign the fucking divorce papers? Marcia: I will not sign the papers. Logan: Fuck off! Don't just get it in writing. Written documents can be challenged. Gotta operate purely on a pay as you go, cash and carry basis.

It's just dawning on me that Logan died never having directed one of his epic insults at Gerri. Sure, he ordered Roman to fire her, but she at least survived ever having been on the receiving end of one of those dress downs. She avoided boar on the floor and having to make up some joke for his amusement. In fact, she deftly avoided his humiliation games and verbal slings and arrows like she was wearing Wonder Woman's bracelets. So, no matter what happens to her in the future, kudos to Gerri for that!

The show runners had the costumes be tight and a little small to keep wrinkles from forming. When Wesley shows up as a Traveler Deus ex machine, I'm blaming you, Marinw. In World War II the average age of the combat soldier was 26. Thank you, Paul Hardcastle for searing that into my brain.

Deanna and Will kind of forgot they had a still living kid.

Maybe my sense of humor is too corny, but my favorite of the jokes was the Unsinkable Molly Brown one (they'll be seating women and children first). Far better than the Eisenhower wears diapers one. I liked that the opening set expectations well. Even though it was a bit of a downer, it took away so many of the unnecessary "will this happen this season?" type questions. No, Joel and Midge won't reunite, at least long-term. Yes, Midge becomes a huge success. Suzie too. Now, on with what happened in 1961!

I thought the opening was clever and the actress playing Edith a good match for Midge's daughter. But I didn't like the opening scene because Edith was too rude to tolerate. Don't be in therapy if you're just going to be an ass to your therapist. It started the episode on the wrong note for me.

OMG -- thank you!!! That perplexed me in the moment, but then I totally forgot about it. Because, apathy. And put me on Team Most of the Crew Should be Older than 25. I don't agree with the argument that starships are heavy in lower grade lieutenants and ensigns. It's not what we saw. And it makes no sense to have a career in starfleet to only spend your first gig in space. Then, what? One works at starfleet academy for 40 years? I also don't agree that Starfleet Academy is like a community college where people graduated in 2-3 years instead of a bachelor degree issuing university where they graduate in 4 or 5 years, or 6-8 for a graduate degree. But let's say, for argument's sake, a career starts at 21. Let's rounddown a career to 40 years, and imagine people in the future not working past 62. And in the future, I'd like to think that people don't see careers as grinds until retirement, but a lifelong passion. So 4 years out of 40 would be 10%. I would expect no more than 10% of that crew to be under 25. Especially when it's supposed to be filled with scientists, engineers, and medical professionals. And that's just leaving out how Guinan would ruin the curve. ;) Even Terry Matalas thought Wil Wheaton oversold the surprise appearance of Toothipick, the Vulcan from, I'm going to guess, Voyager? The one who turned into a changeling. Wil was all, "We have a huge a surprise on our next show!" and Matalas had to tweet, "Eh, it's not that big of a surprise. I don't know why he's saying that."

You're probably right. I can see the motto now: Paramount+. We can bait and switch you because you won't switch off the channel. #lazy #forgetful

Now that my anger and frustration regarding the bad writing and waste of talent and opportunity has subsided a bit, I can say this: Hearing Magel's voice as the computer affected me. I felt like Kendall Roy talking to his father: I loved it, but I can't forgive this show.

That was Geordi who coined it as a cheap, behind-the-back insult, and Riker, I think, reprimanded him for it. Riker did, inadvertently, use the nickname as a slip of the tongue with Picard in his ready room, because it was put into his head. Riker either was -- appropriately -- reprimanded for it or he caught himself in his error and explained. And I wouldn't say TNG was 100% exemplary. It wasn't. I'll try to shortcut this so as not to unduly belabor the point, and not continue to make it about the entirety of TNG. When watching that episode of this season where Riker came onto the board the Titan and publicly embarrassed Ensign LaForge, it hit me as rude and unentertaining. I thought, "What a jerk!" And I seldom, if ever, thought that of Riker before that point. It set a tone for me for the show. And it demonstrated to me how this show was just an average put-down, humiliate each other with quips and insults type of show. Not my kind of show. But that's just my experience. Edited to add: I'll give you one. In Generations, when Riker ordered the plank to be removed, while there's an argument he didn't intend to have Worf fall, that's too generous of a reading. Riker was, in fact, being a dick at work to Worf. But my point was more that Riker would not punch down and humiliate new, young employees for kicks and giggles. That I thought was a low.

As I can tell you already know from your use of the word 'puppet,' being the object of someone's attention is not a personality trait. But I'm still going to mention it anyway. ;) Teasing colleagues among friends or one's superiors is one thing. Riker would tease Picard, but that's punching up. The Pinnocchio comment was a one-time thing, one-on-one, when they met, yes? I don't remember another time he did that, and I don't recall that being done to insult Data. It certainly wasn't done to publicly humiliate him. Riker would tease Worf, for instance, but never while Worf was at his battle station. What Riker did to Ensign LaForge in this show was punching down. And Riker didn't do that. No one on TNG did that. The closest Riker came to engaging in that type of behavior was when he teased Wesley while they all were on the bridge at the beginning of the second season when Wesley was staying on the Enterprise. The other time Riker was unprofessional, putting aside his flirtations with aliens (and they usually had the alien be the one to initiate and a whole 'nother can of worms) was when he and Ro got into a shouting match on a turbo lift. Still, he wasn't punching down or publicly humiliating a lower deck employee. Even when Riker had friction with the lower deck white male ensign in Lower Decks, there was no punching down or public humiliation for Riker's personal amusement. Having re-watched nearly all of TNG these past couple months, I think Pulaski gets a bad rap. Yes, she was installed in part to re-create the Bones-Spock sparring. But with Spiner playing Data as so child-like, her honest questions and pushback came off as bullying. She did, nearly instantly, correct the pronunciation of his name. She might have rolled her eyes when she did it, which wasn't right, but she didn't hold out until she was nearly dying. Fun fact: In America, we used to pronounce the word 'data' as dat-ta prior to the early 1990s. That was the prominent pronunciation, at any rate, and how the show runners intended Data's name to be pronounced. But, at the first table read, Patrick Stewart used the British pronunciation, Day-ta, and the showrunners liked that better. So they kept it. And once TNG permeated popular culture in America, we Americans starting using that pronunciation for all types of data as well. So, Patrick Stewart altered, in his own small way, American linguistics.

Yep. Except for the tiny part of one of their personalities was that she was bad at her job, so she earned the nickname “Crash.” That oh-so-not-so-funny tidbit exemplifies the difference between TNG and whatever this show has been. When Riker first came on board Shaw’s ship, he made a very public joke about how Ensign LaForge was nicknamed crash. He publicly humiliated her in front of her colleagues. Meanwhile, what drew me to TNG was how it exemplifies a professional work environment. Riker, along with Troi, was in charge of personnel. And while they occasionally teased Wesley while he was on the bridge, they never did so in a way that belittled his ability to perform the tasks of an ensign. Terry Matalas’s version of Riker caused him to take a cheap shot at someone beneath him in rank. Rodenberry’s and Berman’s Riker would never have done that. I still can't get over the scene from 17 Secons where Riker says to the at least 65-year-old Picard that he hopes Picard gets to enjoy parenthood some day. Ummm, the man is a senior citizen! Obviously he made his choice long ago to not, and that ship had sailed. Oh, but the plot. Think of the plot! Sad to know that shaming the child-free is still a thing in the 24th -- or whatever it is -- century. Have I mentioned how much I .....