Star Trek: TNG 5x10 Full Reaction!
Added 2025-12-27 18:00:12 +0000 UTC
Comments
Happy new year Jess!! I hope 2026 brings wonderful things your way
Anthony Peterson
2025-12-31 10:46:45 +0000 UTCYeah, I assumed Theodore was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with the projects you mention.
Thomas Corp
2025-12-27 20:52:50 +0000 UTCWe finally get a continuation of the Alexander storyline from early last season. I remember it was your birthday episode reaction when K'Ehleyr was murdered by Duras. I knew you'd be happy to see Worf's mother, Helena Rozhenko again. It's just a shame Theodore Bikel didn't return as Sergey Rozhenko. He was starring in a movie and a TV show around the time this episode was filmed in 1991, so I'm guessing he was too busy to film any scenes for TNG.
Geordie Joe
2025-12-27 20:41:23 +0000 UTCYeah, fairly lowkey, yet it fits perfectly with this emotional one. Considering what Alexander’s been through at this point, his brattyness makes sense. Fair point on it being a narrative gamble. Remembering the sort of autistic spiral that I went through when my parents got divorced, or at least my efforts to sort of bury that autistic spiral when it was happening, I find that I can’t even really say Alexander’s wrong to have the brattyness. Probably about the role being cursed, which I think that the role of Dawn might have been the same given Michelle’s death back in February. You do sense early that there will not be a scientific triumph for the reasons you mention of it being massively disruptive to the status quo. Richard McGonagle is very earnest that it leads to the hope that these efforts will be the success and not end up in Fire and Ash. The climax is an intense one. Good notes on the gilvos. Love how Jess and Alexander were on the same page. (Though if they were snakes, I’d imagine there’d be the resemblance to Paul Reubens at the end of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.) The best part of Jonathan’s look is how it’s the “Holy SHIT!” look mixed with as you call it, the “Well, fuck me, I guess.” face, and how there’s genuinely the awe and respect in that look. Can see Picard still having the annoyance of him and Worf being interrupted, but yeah, it’s then great how he mentions to Worf that it’s nothing new dealing with a member of his crew dealing with new parental responsibilities, and he gives Worf his leave to tend to that, and they can sort out the security matters at a later time. Shame the one scene got cut to make room for the ads. One area that as you say, shit though streaming has made certain things, it gets points for not having that to worry about.
Thomas Corp
2025-12-27 19:16:27 +0000 UTCGeorgia Brown was the original Nancy in the 1960 London and 1963 Broadway stage productions of Oliver!. She also made appearances on the BBC's The Good Old Days, which was hosted by Leonard Sachs - who appeared in two Doctor Who stories, 'The Massacre' with William Hartnell and Arc Of Infinity, with Peter Davison, Leonard played President Borusa. Sadly, Georgia missed out on the role in the film version, Director Carol Reed and producer John Woolf opted for Shani Wallis and other actors who were less known in the U.S. for the film, despite Brown's massive success in the role on both sides of the Atlantic. The BBC's long-running music hall variety show, The Good Old Days, was filmed at the historic City Varieties Theatre in Leeds. I saw practically every one of these back then but didn't make the connection with Helena Roshenko until now! The 70s were so long ago I suppose. Memory cheats us.
Josef Schiltz
2025-12-27 19:12:07 +0000 UTCGeorgia Brown--British Music Hall Medley, 1975 BBC:TV: The Good Old Days.
Josef Schiltz
2025-12-27 18:58:26 +0000 UTCOh, don’t worry, Jess, last week’s reaction was great. Now to the last Next Gen of the year. We had a Worf episode for the first Next Gen reaction of the year. We have a Worf episode for the last Next Gen reaction of the year. We had an episode exploring Data as a father in last year’s final Next Gen reaction. We have an episode exploring Worf as a father in this year’s final Next Gen reaction. Perfectly balanced. As all things should be. Coincidentally, this is also the final episode to be released in my birth year of 1991. Strange thing of I get sadder watching this episode with you than I did watching it by myself. Puts me in a very melancholic mood. Knew that you would adore this one. We share the feelings of this one hitting home, Jess. Adore your gasp seeing Helena again. She was a sneaky mom with dropping Alexander off to enjoy the retirement years, as you put it. There’s the sad subtext of Worf saying that his mom has many years ahead of her, when Georgia sadly died at fifty-eight months after this episode aired. Resonates, particularly with the timing as I went through that with my aunt/godmother. Within two weeks’ time, that’ll be six years since she died at fifty-three. Last time I talked to her that week in January, there was no indication that it was to be the last time. I also have the sad response to how Helena is saying that she and Sergey are ready to just be grandparents. Namely, I think that, short of a miracle, neither my brother nor I are ever going to be giving our parents grandchildren. Being a grandparent isn’t in the cards for Mom, and even if it ever does happen, Dad will never get to see it. Might be for the better in my case as any kids I’d have, I’d probably fuck ‘em up. Then again, old school friends of mine tell me that I’d be good at showing any hypothetical kids all the great movies, to which I note yes, but with my undying love for the villains, that’s still going to be questionable how good that’d be. Makes me note that I can’t judge or condemn Worf too harshly. On a more humorous note, there is some amusement relating to Worf when Helena observes the touch of gray in Worf’s beard. Reminds me of when Mom first noticed the pinch of salt that I’ve got in the chin, and she thought it was something else before she realized what was up. I got a laugh. Love how you, Picard, and I were on the side of Worf can look after his son, and the security assignment can wait. Greatly appreciated Worf making it clear that he did not tell Alexander that Klingons do not listen to teachers, and Miss Kyle has the nice response to that. No apologies necessary for your rather strong insistence that the boy be taken to see Deanna. Terrific how Deanna never tells Worf what the right thing is to do, nor does she give advice. It’s like in This is Us with Pamela Adlon as the therapist that Randall saw, where she said, “I don’t give advice. I offer observations and I pose questions.” Deanna most certainly has that same professional standard; Marina sells it all so well, and I live. Love how you do too. Rather like her observation that Worf still holding some anger toward K’Ehleyr would be a normal response, and it wouldn’t mean that Worf loved her any less. I know how you often gravitate toward when it gets explored how it’s hard for people to help others when they have yet to help themselves first. Really everything you have to say about this one is better than what I got, particularly as I’m in a rambling mood at present. Bringing us to the scientific plotline. Love how Geordi likens it to having a front row seat seeing Zefram Cochrane engage the first warp drive leading to a very fateful date in April. (Still no word if the history books ever make mention of the Blooby-blob. Christ, I loved your reaction to that one, Jess.) And indeed, closing out the year with your lovely reactions to Geordi being a sweetheart, much appreciated. Danger kicks up a notch putting Alexander in danger, we share the emotions there. Been some time since the seatbelts running gag on your channel. Starting to think that the crew would yell, “Ah, buckle this!” in response to your remarks. Picard and Data were great of establishing how much time that Worf and Riker had. Love your comment on Worf getting the boost of strength via the power of parenthood. I knew that you and Alexander would be simpatico about the animals. Patrick is beautiful how he sells Patrick’s fear and concern; you see Picard disassociate and give the clinical order at the potential cost of Riker, Worf, Alexander, and the lizardss’ lives. Spock was correct when he observed that there is an almost Vulcan quality to our beloved Jean-Luc. Everything turns out all right. Nice to have the little Beverly moment at the year’s end. She has Alexander back to ship-shape shape as she matches Charles Emerson Winchester III in terms of medical prowess. We laugh over Michael perfectly selling Worf’s blunt line delivery, which would be me. Leading to the sweet ending of Alexander staying. Great Next Gen reaction to close the year out. Going to be a fun year to come with Next Gen reactions. We’ll be getting some good ones, up to including your favorite, which is a shared chapter-and-verse episode. You say how you have the top two, and we got to the one with Disaster. Same here with having two that I watched the most. We already got to Déjà Q, and in this coming year, we’ll be getting to the other one that’s borderline tied with Déjà Q. Nobody ever talks about it, suggesting it’s not a popular one, which is consistent with my being someone going against the grain. You, Jess, spoke of that being a very you thing as well, given how your favorite Classic Who Doctor and New Who Doctor are the ones immediately following the ones that everyone says are the greatest. I have Twelve and Eleven as my Doctors, same as you, (reversed order in your case, of course,) so I get it. Or you take, for example, the Scream series where Scream 3 is my favorite one and that’s the one that tends to get shat on the most. One silver lining is that most everyone seems to agree that Parker Posey is goddamn amazing in it. Really curious about what you have to say about my upcoming tied with Déjà Q for being the favorite episode of the series, and curious about what everyone here would have to say about it as well when we get to it this coming year. For now, this one was very beautiful, Jess, thank you so very much.
Thomas Corp
2025-12-27 18:57:10 +0000 UTCAnother much more low key episode than we're used to by this point in the show, but that's entirely fitting with how the emotional focus is allowed to be entirely on Worf and Alexander. A pretty brave choice to have him be this bratty that they had to know was risking turning the audience against him permanently (just look at the general view of Dawn Summers until the last few years), but it totally fits the life he's had so far. They even went so far as to change actors, figuring Jon Paul Steur didn't quite have it in his range like Brian Bonsall did after his role on Family Ties. Unfortunately, he's also gone on to a pretty troubled life with multiple drug and assault arrests, so maybe the role is just cursed. You kind of figure the whole time that the soliton wave won't work just because it would be such a huge change to the franchise status quo, but Richard McGonagle gives such an earnestly hopeful performance that you still wish it could happen. Maybe canoeing with the Water Tribe is more his thing. And it definitely makes for an intense climax; not every day you see this show willing to throw around so many standing fires on its sets. And while the gilvos are technically pretty simplistic puppets, I've always loved the look of them as something convincingly alien with just enough realistic movement to make you believe they're alive and want them to come out okay. And I can't go without mentioning Jonathan's killer "Well, fuck me, I guess" face when Worf manages to lift the block on his own. Another big highlight is how after a bunch of buildup to Picard's annoyance with how distracted Worf is, he's then perfectly gracious about postponing the meeting since his time with Alexander is more important. He's definitely been through this kind of thing before with how many families are on the ship, after all. There was a scene cut from the end where they reminisce about how both like and unlike typical Klingons Worf is and how that will impact his relationship with his son. It's a pretty good moment that purely fell down to the necessity of fitting in all the ads, one thing streaming definitely has over this era in the middle of all the ways it's gotten worse.
Ryan
2025-12-27 18:49:49 +0000 UTC
