The Neutral Zone

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.

Data does not know the meaning of "homemaker" when I am sure he has access to the largest computerized dictionary in the universe? Maybe it is time for an upgrade! :-) There were other episodes that I question things happening that do not make sense. I am sure I enjoy the series nonetheless.

I agree that this is low octane episode. Three people are beamed back to the Enterprise after being "frozen" based on the premise that if a cure is found, they can be revived. Over three hundred years later they are. The people are a young homemaker, a cutthroat businessman (according to one reviewer a leftist who makes capitalists look bad), and a good natured ne'er do well guitar-playing drunk who enjoys the heck out of his new digs. These people become real nuisances, getting in the way, and not understanding the gravity of things. Meanwhile, a serious confrontation with the Romulans is about to take place. This is serious, but certainly isn't shown that way. The confrontation and the three passenger theme are underdeveloped, but it certainly isn't worth a one rating. Quit letting your prejudices speak for you. These are reviews.

So this is what happens when you glue two scripts you found together.

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.