I’m picking up the pace a little, and have reviewed two more episodes in my eons-long quest to review every episode of TNG. This time it’s two very mediocre episodes, which is the quality of episode that characterizes much of season seven: Force of Nature and Inheritance.
Force of Nature is the environmentally-aware entry; well intended I supposed, it’s poorly executed. The first half of the episode–the B plot–is about Data and his stupid cat. While investigating the disappearance of a ship, a couple of insipid pseudo eco-terrorist siblings cripple the Enterprise. They are renegade scientists who insist that warp drive is permanently harming subspace. When Data simply recommends more research, the sister takes matters into her hands and blows up her own ship, creating the deadly rift she warned them of. As a result, the Federation institutes ‘warp speed limitations’ to curb the damage. The only positive things I can say about this episode are it revisits the Data/Geordi friendship in a couple of scenes, and there is a beautiful shot of the rift itself.
This terrible ovary punch of an episode does have some things you don’t know, such as how this episode came about. Find out why we have Jeri Taylor, an executive producer, to thank for it in my full review. Also, this is the episode where the gender of Spot was changed from male to female, but you have to keep an ear out for it. How many episodes reference ‘warp speed limitations?’ Thankfully only two.
Compared to the previous episode Inheritance is an improvement. The Enterprise crew are visiting a planet to help re-liquify its cooling core before it becomes uninhabitable. A Federation scientist who’s married to one of the leaders of the planet claims to be the wife of Dr. Soong, Data’s creator. She and Data discuss some history, referencing practically every Data-centric episode along the way, and the twist comes when we learn his mom is an android too–and she doesn’t know it! Should Data tell her or not?
We do learn some things in this episode. Julianna shared that her husband made three prototypes before Lore was created. This does potentially lend some credence to the character of B4 from Nemesis, though she also says they all died due to being unstable. Sorry Nemesis, you still suck. While this continues the precedent of Interface, an episode about a relative of a crew member nobody cares about, it is a slight step up from that episode. If you think we’re done with that theme though, you’re wrong. Read my full review for more.
After the recent doldrums of season seven we are finally in position for two of the finest episodes of season seven. In fact they are two of the finest episodes of the series: Parallels and The Pegasus. Finally, two episodes it will be a pleasure to review! Stay tuned.