The Chase

Captain Picard is given a proposition by his old archeology professor.

This is a very interesting episode that answers a lot of big questions about the Star Trek universe, but bizarrely the concept seems to be limited to the this one episode.

The plot is a fairly well constructed mystery that made me want to find out what Professor Galen was searching for. The journey is good and involves some decent interaction between the Enterprise crew and a number of species. The reveal at the end feels important to the overall narrative of the Star Trek universe and involves a speech that would have fit well in the Original Series.

For me the best scenes are the early exchanges between Picard and Galen. These are decent moments of character development for Picard and both characters are in somewhat of a dilemma. Both Patrick Stewart and Norman Lloyd are impressive here.

This is an episode that like many could have done with a follow up to give it continuity, but unfortunately to my knowledge I do not think it has any further references.

For me it's a 7.5/10 but I round upwards.

I'm going to make a simple comment on this great episode. But this is in my personal opinion the *most* important Star Trek episode of all the series combined as it explains the origin of the humans, klingons, cardasians, romulans and many others.

All along many people complained as to why ALL the ST races looked alike (basically humans with long ears, humans with tattoos on their neck, humans with blue skin, humans with ridged forehead, etc) and of course the painfully boring explanation was due to the lack of budget for makeup.

But this actually gives a real "star trekish" explanation for it all and it's rather convincing. I'm not spoiling anything, but if you ever were curious as to why not all species look like a rag-tag team of freaks like in star wars but rather a bunch of human-look-alikes... this episode will explain to you why is that.

Bottom line, crucial episode if you want to understand Star Trek.

With a title like 'The Chase', this episode fuels certain expectations - which end up being defied because this is neither cat-n-mouse nor a race. Which is integral to why this is so good. What starts out as Picard reflecting on those career paths not taken switches gears into something more like a mystery thriller. The key to this is the execution; it's a smooth transition (Frakes at the helm) and the endpoint on this journey brings the major raves together (except for Vulcans) for a curious revelation. But there was real though put into this and the effort to address the differences and similarities in Star Trek makeup effects is evident.

It's a great episode.

7/10

When an old professor of Jean-Luc's turns up on the Enterprise with a priceless gift, he knows that something is up. He is trying to talk the Captain into going on an archaeological venture with him, the chance of a lifetime. Picard turns him down because of his commitment to his ship and crew and sends the man on his way in a shuttlecraft. Soon forces of the Kardassians, the Klingons, and Romulans show their ugly faces and the shuttle is destroyed. Picard begins to feel guilty about leaving his mentor to the dogs. There is something on that planet that is attracting these guys. In the process of attempting to find out what, we learn a lot about the races that have become regular foes for the humans. This is a pretty moralistic episode and works pretty well.

One of the most important Trek lore episodes that didn't/doesn't get the attention it deserved. I would love to see more of the "progenitor species". Find out more of what lead them to plant the "Space Seeds" if you will. Pardon the reference.