The Neutral Zone

This was one of my favorite episodes from the series. Every time it was on, I ended up watching it again.

It was bugging me when I was watching an episode of Deadwood and I couldn't place the character Tom Nuttall from the show as L. Q. 'Sonny' Clemonds from TNG until I looked it up.

The line of the show was when he said to Data, "Why don't you come back later on and you and me will find us a couple low mileage "pit woofies" (sic?) and help em build a memory".

I was on the floor. He made the show.

Catch it if you haven't seen it.

Star Trek is supposed to be about exploring. Having Riker is uninterested in exploring a 370 year old Earth vessel is so unbelievably out of character that it's annoying.

Then Picard being annoyed at rescuing the three people who appeared to be alive is disgusting. Star Trek saves people. It doesn't discard them.

It would have been far better if Riker was gung-ho to investigate but restricted by time. Picard could then be annoyed by "Why now? I don't have time for this!" but he should have NEVER been annoyed at their rescue.

A series will be far better if its characters act coherently from one episode to the next and only step out of character due to some critical event that causes them to either crumble or to perform unexpected heroics but even that should further their character development along a path, not a random zig-zag.

Re-watching TNG from S01E01, I am quite disappointed at the haphazardness of it.

According to IMDb, because of the writers strike, the end of the episode and some subsequent episodes were re-written. Originally, this final episode of season one was supposed to introduce the Borg. Now, they are just alluded to as some force that is wiping out Federation AND Romulan bases along the Neutral Zone. And, because much of the original episode was excised, they substituted a 'funny plot' involving three late 20th century people who were in suspended animation and were awakened by the Enterprise.

So is the new melange any good? Well, yes. Having Q introduce the Borg later worked well. As for the funny subplot about suspended animation, it's only partially successful. This is because towards the very end, the audience is assaulted with a HUGE dose of Roddenberry and his Star Trek philosophy. The Captain goes off on a harangue about how in the the 25th century, there is no want, no greed, no worries about property and everyone is 100% equal. As a lifelong pessimist, this sort of preaching actually made me laugh a bit--and DID come off as very heavy-handed. It didn't ruin the episode but it sure did take you out of the moment.

Enterprise is ordered to the neutral zone and picks up three cryogenically frozen passengers on route.

This is an amusing episode but a fairly low key effort to finish series one, aside from the re-introduction of some big name franchise villains.

The story is tangled between two plots reminiscent of classic original series episodes. We have the Khan-like situation of the three guest characters and the 'Balance Of Terror' throwback of the Romulan encounter. Generally, the writers put most of the effort into the former and pay minimal lip-service to the latter so you will tune in next season.

The guest characters are moderately entertaining but mostly annoy the Enterprise crew and probably many viewers. I enjoyed some of their interactions with crew members. Clemmons is pretty funny and although Offenhaus is annoying, he does allow Picard to expand on the state of society in the twenty-forth century. Gracie is less interesting but does look at the the situation from the perspective of losing family members.

As for the Romulans, for their brief time they are enjoyable, but there is no actual plot other than them announcing their presence.

The Romulan ship design and visual is very good, whilst the scenes on board the space capsule at the beginning are very well done.

Most performances are solid, but there is nobody particularly outstanding other than Leon Rippy who is fun as Clemmons.

I wouldn't consider this a spoiler: funniest, most incisive, best sci-fi futuristic line I've ever heard in the entire series or most others, for that matter. These three characters from the 20th century who have been cryogenically frozen for 400 years are thawed out and there is one exchange that is priceless:

L.Q. 'Sonny' Clemmons (pointing toward computer screen on wall): Let's see if the Braves are on. How do you turn on this TV?

Riker: TV?

L.Q. 'Sonny' Clemmons: Yeah, the boob tube. I'd like to see how the Braves are doing after all this time. Still prob'ly findin' ways to lose.

Data: I believe he means television, Sir.That particular form of entertainment did not last much beyond the year 2040.

And yet, tonight when I watched this on BBC-America, whatever imbecile edited it for time chose to remove this, the best line I ever heard, by Data!