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UNCUT - Relics (TNG S6E4) | Star Trek Journey 238

TW: Star Trek 6 slander

Special thanks to Steve for the special overlay!

YOUTUBE LINK

Comments

A trope is a tried and true story element that people like, and nearly every story has one or several. A cliche just means something has been used too much.

Shatner's Toupee

Well if somebody wanted to show an example of a later season episode that equal the mediocrity of so many season 1 and season 2 episodes I would show them this one. Not horrible passable entertainment but way below average for the later seasons.

GeorgeReevesSupermanFan

I think, if you guys want to give Ron Moore another chance as a showrunner, give For All Mankind a go. It’s a phenomenal show.

Chris Christison

Moore is one of the most important people from this era of Trek. Especially in relation to Klingons.

Chris Christison

Dunno if this was mentioned as a glitch stopped the video. But Scotty was promoted to Captain of Engineering when he was transferred to the Excelsior. And has, ever since wore the rank badge of a captain, just like Spock since Wrath of Khan. Making three active captains on the Enterprise since the end of Voyage Home.

Andy Frankham-Allen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSnA2FdDYfk Neil Degrasse Tyson talking about Dyson Spheres

Nathan Cline

You should continue Battlestar

Lyric

As far as the power generation, the concept of the Dyson Sphere focuses on being able to tap 100% of the star's energy, versus the small percentage that .

Nathan Cline

There is a brief line in I believe a Captain's Log at the end of the episode of Stafleet dispatching a couple Science Vessels to continue the exploration of it.

Nathan Cline

Documentaries I've seen of a Dyson sphere actually used more of a gridwork than a completely solid sphere.

Nathan Cline

Don't know that it was at the end of its life, but a star with a lot of solar flare activity poses a severe radiation risk. Atmosphere helps but the Earth has a lot smaller target. You would assume it would be a very advanced civilization, but they could have gone extinct via disease, or evolved into a higher lifeform.

Nathan Cline

IIRC the original bridge set was built by a fan of TOS, and the production got their permission to use it for this episode.

Sherpa Jones

With the Ron Moore script given more room to breathe, like in the novelisation, this would have been a far better season finale two-parter than Times Arrow...

The Ninth Doctor

I love this episode but whenever I watch them in order, I'm reminded of one of my biggest TNG regrets: I've always wished that this had been the two-part season ender in place of "Time's Arrow". The Dyson Sphere deserved to be more than a MacGuffin, and I would have loved 1-2 more "useful Scotty" scenes plus one with Guinan, to balance out the "old and in the way" ones. And after all if Spock got a 2-parter, then Scotty deserved one too.

Dan Halstead

Scotty was in a few if the Starfleet Corps of engineers novels

Scarpad’s Domain

...you might want to pull back on this comment.

tyranusfan

Here's a picture of the partial bridge set they built. https://images.app.goo.gl/J9yPAd2xezoAeVW16 It's basically just the turbolift alcove and the adjacent wall console/station. They reused that one console to stand in for the other side of the bridge when filming the reverse shots of Picard.

Kino Bambeano

and the way he pounded that whiskey, dang lol

Kino Bambeano

The Dyson Sphere. Yes, a real theory. You build it at the Earth's distance from the star because the Earth's distance from the sun is essential to life being able to survive as a place suitable for life. Mars is further out and is therefore too cold. Venus is a little closer and has a runaway greenhouse effect that makes the temperature over 900 degrees.

Nathan Cline

I believe there is a novel that has Scotty having been part of the cre that built the Enterprise-E, and I believe Kelsey Grammer's Captain batesman. Obviously non-canon, but another case of using him

Nathan Cline

They made Riker the audience surrogate a lot, which accidentally makes him a dumbass. "A Dyson sphere?" "What is a TV?"

Fishing Trip

Talk about spoilers, I remember hearing an announcement on the radio that Scotty would make an appearance on TNG before Season 6 even started. Great episode though. I get teary eyed seeing Scotty getting pushed aside and then on the TOS bridge saluting his old crewmates.

Encarta

Ron Moore’s ‘For All Mankind’ is incredible watch if you have a chance.

beanKounter

It’s kinda true. He didn’t just appear he materialized 😉🖖

tyranusfan

There’s a novel written a few years later about Spock being captured on Romulus and Scotty hears about it, flies his shuttle to the Fleet Museum and steals the old Constitution class ship Picard was talking about to go rescue him

tyranusfan

Once The Next Generation had established itself in its later seasons, the stars of TOS…with one notable exception…expressed their openness at some point to possibly reprise their roles on the series. To quote Leonard Nimoy about TNG, “They’ve forged their own path and are doing quite well!” There were no hard feelings from the original cast about TNG’s success…with one notable exception. I’ll let Josh and Alex deduce on their own who could possibly be that one exception.

Raphael Gaytan

😀

Josh (Target Audience)

I just Google searched "How did James Doohan end up on tng" and the Google AI literally spit this out. Guess we've still got some work to do on the AI. "James Doohan, known for playing Scotty in Star Trek: The Original Series, did not appear in any episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)."

Brad Newman

250 -MILLION- class M planets. Think about it, the whole orbit of earth, in all directions. Think about it, you look up at the noon sky and there's the sun, sure, but in every direction, no sky, no stars, just endless land. If a Dyson sphere existed in this fashion it would be absolutely enormous in the extreme. You could fit a million United Federation of Planets inside that sphere. If only that sun wasn't at the end of it's life making it no longer habitable. Which is ostensibly why it was abandoned.

#MaxwellDidNothingWrong

Relics really needed some Shakespeare to really hit home.

Michael Nemo

Yes, you're correct. D'oh

Timothy Nikiforovs

Little late commenting.......I love this episode and knew you boys would as well. The only issue I have with it is some of the writing and plot points concerning the Dyson Sphere. I know it was just for drama, but why was it such and emergency to escape from the inside? Obviously at some point they had repaired the impulse engines, else they would not have been able to leave close orbit around the star when they did. Only reason they were in danger was because of the close orbit they were forced to be in when all they had was maneuvering thrusters, Riker went off to see if he could get the impulse engines back online, then all of a sudden they were. The star was unstable, yes, but still only in the early stages of the late main sequence. Yellow stars take millions of years to puff up into red giants. So why didn't they just go into a further orbit from the star, get out of the flare's way, say in an orbit about the size of Venus? They would have not been in danger then. They would have had plenty of time to figure out how to open the big hatch again. I know, I know...plot device and only time enough for a 45 minute show. Like others have commented, this discovery was incredible and just a gold mine of possible stories that they never followed up on. Where did the builders go??? Did they really leave or did they all die inside the sphere? They obviously did not have warp drive....you don't build something like that if you did have it, and how did they build it??? On and on.

Monty Crawford

I've already opened a ticket. Seems to be just a me issue. Hopefully resolve soon.

Evan Guthrie

That’s very odd. I’ll let Patreon know.

Josh (Target Audience)

I know there's a regular posting schedule but AAAAHHHH WHY AM I NOT GETTING EMAIL NOTIFS ANYMORE

Evan Guthrie

This is one of the few times I've double watched the reaction and episode. And I watched it pretty much immediately after the first time. I love this one. I'm happy that you guys loved it too.

Boggle

Fair

Josh (Target Audience)

Josh mentions potential regret about not continuing with the series given the high quality of Ronald D Moore’s work on TNG.

EnigmaticPenguin

Scotty's reactions to Worf through the episode are my favorite little bits.

Boggle

Naked Time (TOS), but very similar episodes I grant you

The Ninth Doctor

I recommend this clip from a recent interview with Ron Moore. He talks about how he was a life long Trek fan and how he got his job writing for TNG. No spoilers or anything in this clip just him talking about leaving college and getting hired, it's really good and gives some insight on how he started in the business and how trek hired writers: https://youtu.be/NByFksMWWII?si=xLmEst1LJx3EedgI

Todd Pritchett

Is this the best use of Scotty ever? S6 has such a broad variety of stories that I can’t help but love it. Even the less strong ones like man of the people have merit. Relics is perfect as a single episode I think dragging it out to a two parter may compromise it.

Darren Seal

Re: Ron Moore and BSG, I think as you guys start to see and live with the same limitations of Star Trek as it progresses that he and the rest of us did, you will see the value of BSG. I think that show is worth a second chance - you cut yourselves off right at the precibus of some incredible payoff. That said, his contributions to the Trek franchise only get better, more epic and consequential and deeper from this point. His remaining writing credits on Star Trek stand out among the best ever and smartest pieces of character writing for the franchise. There is a lot more valuable runway in the Ron Moore Trek Train.

Steven Portillo

Surface area equation is 4pir^2. You might be thinking of the volume of a sphere? So if r_d is the radius of the Dyson sphere and r_e is the radius of the Earth, the ratio is (4*pi*r_d^2) / (4*pi*r_e^2) and everything cancels out except for r_d^2/r_e^2 = (r_d/r_e)^2. So (200,000,000 / 12750)^2 ~= 15686^2 ~= 246 million times the surface area.

David Clamage

I don't think he flubbed the line, he called her the Dohlman of Elas, which was her title, he didn't say her name...

Brendon Waldron

In case you guys dont read my longer comments, "The Naked Now" was the engine restart sequence Scotty had to come up with when the ship was hurtling towards Psi 2000, the planet with the weird gravity that made the water into a contaminant

paultardspambot .

No, orbit is accurate. That's what the idea of a Dyson sphere is built on. That's why the interior surface is habitable... It's the same distance from the sun as a planet would be.

Aaron Wells

but yeah, it would be hard to be worse then geordi

paultardspambot .

wasnt it kind of a thing that Scotty wasnt great with the ladies either? Like wasnt there an episode where they are trying to set him up or something? Or just that he was not that interested cause he was too into engines? It's kind of the stereotype of engineer types not being great with the ladies

paultardspambot .

is it a trek show or something else?

paultardspambot .

as i said, I think we have to say "orbit" was a mistake and they meant "diatance from"

paultardspambot .

its also a different story though. Spock isnt "old" old for a Vulcan, and he's in a story that logically is what he might be doing at that point in time. This was a different story, and engineering skills after youve been gone for 75 years with the pace of tech are going to be a thing where you go from being a legend to your knowledge way out of date. That isn't the same with something like diplomacy or politics

paultardspambot .

They also reference "The Naked Now" with Psi 2000 and the engine start up sequence

paultardspambot .

yeah, probably. Just like there's a head of Starfleet Medical, there's probably a head of Starfleet Engineering who makes beaucratic decisions about ship designs and what techs to research and so on.

paultardspambot .

I mean.... they just gave a really basic summary thats not wrong.

paultardspambot .

yeah... I think this is a difference between the standard of television now and then. It doesn't come off that way to me, but TOS and TNG were never subtle. It wasn't till DS9 they get into character subtleties, like a certain Gul for example.

paultardspambot .

Also, The Penguin is an A-Hole. Justice for Vic!

paultardspambot .

why is everyone talking about BSG in this thread?

paultardspambot .

ah ok. I incorrectly said a fan had made the whole bridge. That was from memory of reading about it a long time ago

paultardspambot .

Dude, he just referenced TOS episodes. To me its weird that that bothers you. They were intended callbacks, and they were for TOS fans because at the time the TNG audience had grown beyond fans of original TOS

paultardspambot .

Never seen it, but I've heard people say it's similar in ways to DS9 but without the world building DS9 had to draw from

paultardspambot .

maybe they meant the distance from the earth to the sun, not the distanc of the orbit

paultardspambot .

You want a fanwank for that? Back then for security reasons most of the visuals were projected directly into the mind of the user. Because of the potential for hacking, they switched to panels that were more adaptable. It was also a matter of style, that look might have been in fashion at the time.

paultardspambot .

I'll talk about this more later, but Star Trek Online does a great job with its plot and following up on tons of stuff from episodes. I think it's worth keeping in mind that even at this point in TNG while there was continuity and world building, it isnt like modern trek where there's just so much of it that the writers need to hire expert fans to make sure they dont get anything wrong.

paultardspambot .

Its funny, in Star Trek continues they add a Counselor character and its treated as a new thing. Of course in the second episode of TOS the girl who also gets the psy powers was a psychologist

paultardspambot .

Yes, I noted Doohan's acting was excellence and he really sold Scotty's emotions here

paultardspambot .

I haven't read all the comments, so this might have been covered, but the bridge set was actually something a fan had made that they found about and were able to use for this episode. YOu guys caught the Elaan of Troy reference (he did flub the line, but thats no unrealistic that he might have forgotten her name) but didn't mention the Psi 2000 reference as being to The Naked Now. yes, the planet he referenced where "a man can have evrything thing he wants but the first time i went there" was indeed a reference to the Jack the Ripper episode.

paultardspambot .

I love this episode, and the older I get the more it hits home. James Doohan was fantastic in this one, and Ron Moore absolutely nailed it with this script. As others pointed out, the size of a Dyson sphere is INSANE. I really wish they'd followed up on it more. Any civilization that could build this would have to have the technology to disassemble entire solar systems and transport them across the galaxy, then reassemble them into this. They'd have material science able to create a shell only (apparently) a few miles thick that could withstand the stress of its own motion around the star to create artificial gravity without being torn apart and collapsing inward. Plus the logistics of creating millions upon millions of worlds of seas, oceans, mountains, islands, and the weather and atmosphere....the power generation...the internal transport and communication - MIND-BLOWING! The Federation would have to send dozens of teams of hundreds of specialists to start investigating this thing, unstable star and all. Oh, and that earlier episode where they had Timicin trying to create technology to stabilize a star... Damn. There is so much gold in here that just doesn't get mined..

Paul O'Neal

Seems like they are riffing on Larry Niven's "Ringworld" here a bit too.

Paul O'Neal

First time I've seen that! Wish they'd left it in.

Paul O'Neal

Alex needs to stop mentioning Star Trek to people irl

tyranusfan

Something like an “Engineer-in-chief of Starfleet”

tyranusfan

I suppose it’s possible… perhaps an admiral that oversees the shipyards like Utopia Planitia or a commodore that oversees the Fleet Museum. 😉

Ron Hubbard Jr

Finally had time to watch this after being busy all day. Glad you both loved it. From Memory Alpha: During the first season of The Next Generation, Doohan had strong words about the series, believing it to be rehashing a number of episodes the classic series had done. It was not until his family made him sit down and watch The Next Generation did he finally appreciate the new series. While a bit too crass in regard to season one, he was not entirety wrong in his assessment, as there were some episodes that were essentially rehashes of original crew episodes, such as "The Naked Now" (from "The Naked Time") and, due to a writers' strike, the second season episodes "The Child" (originally a likewise titled episode written for the abandoned Star Trek: Phase II television series) and "Unnatural Selection" (from "The Deadly Years").

KatWithAttitude

I never saw what others saw in the reboot of BSG. Not saying it wasn't good, a lot of my friends really liked it... it just wasn't for me.

Stevtrek

Check out the cut scene with Troy. It's worth it.

Chris Moe

Agree 100%!

Owen Madden

https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Out_of_Time

Preston M

There was a comic book special called "Out of Time" where Captain Bateson (Kelsey Grammer) from the USS Bozeman in "Cause and Effect" meets up with Scotty.

Preston M

Reaction was so nice, I had to go and watch it twice. Here's to you, lads!

THE LORE!!!

Oh man... the intensity of the anticipation and the expectant smile on my face the second the teaser to this episode started, just waiting for THAT reveal... haha. I was not disappointed. It's reactions like this one that really provide that sweet, deep dopamine hit of watching two of your friends experience something you just KNOW they're going to love for the very first time. Great reaction, guys! TNG is just like the best comfort food. I feel like even if I live to be 140 years old like Scotty, I'll still be watching these same freakin TNG episodes, and loving every minute of it!

ScotchBeard78

Thanks for posting the link! I was just thinking about that deleted scene when they said, "Oh there's Troi!" I feel like it was a natural cut for time and pacing, but it's a nice enough little scene.

ScotchBeard78

It is green!

E Parhas

As an avid Trekkie but who hasn't been able to get into TOS for one reason or another, I still loved this episode. Didn't know who Scottie was the first time watching it, yet even without the nostalgia bait, it works as its own coherent & emotional story. Also, given your shock at how big the Dyson Sphere is, this quote seems very relevant: “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.” So wrote Douglas Adams

Paul

The biggest reason this episode works is James Doohan. The man has charm. And he brings out a side of Picard it was a lot of fun to see.

Charlie's Illiteracy

Picard on the original Enterprise bridge: FUCKING LEGENDARY.

Charlie's Illiteracy

This episode is great for fan service. The plot and dialog is iffy at times. Scotty used some of the same lines way too often. And the Dyson sphere deserved a better plot. It is just too cool for this one. But I love Scotty so I love this episode. Unification 1 and 2 are much better episodes as far as plot, dialog, and acting. This one has more fan service and call backs to TOS. The "it's green" is a callback to the TOS episode "By any Other Name" when Scotty drinks the alien under the carpet. I like the friction between Geordi and Scotty. It gives the episode some character. I cannot see how this one or Unification is a better sendoff that Star Trek 6. Here most of the crew just says goodbye to Scotty and some were not in the episode beside that one scene. Scotty telling Geordi he is a good engineer is cool but it does more for Geordi than Scotty. Scotty just realizes he has more to give and more adventure. That is it. Spock was better because he was really doing something. TNG or some other series could really go back to that. The stakes are smaller here than 6 which was one of the criticisms of 6 that the guys gave. In 6 the stakes were a possible war with the Klingons and Kirk and his son and Spock. Here it is just the Enterprise. Great fan service episode but if that was not Scotty in the transporter beam then this episode would really be bad. At best it would be boring.

Carl Peterson

You want grief? BSG will give you grief.

Loot Narsbaar

In the mid to late 90’s I was writing a story about a possible future where the federation fell.. to ⛔️spoilers ⛔️ & JLP is mounting a resistance movement. Their base is inside a Dysons sphere Geordie/ & Scotty built by replicating ring after ring. And they use the Aldaen shield technology to hide it from the enemy.

Philbot

That's excellent news. Babylon 5 is interesting in that the entire plot was sketched out years in advance. Very much an epic arc, the first example of Space Opera on TV.

Aaron Wells

Yes, unlike hilarious episodes like I, Borg & The Bonding

Josh (Target Audience)

Well, Scotty himself rated this episode “no bloody A, B, C or D” just an S

Worf and Riker Ride Again

I don't think it's the right show for these guys. It's dark, it's heavy, it's almost never funny. And it gets less funny as it goes.

Aaron Wells

nice you've got so many star trek episodes to catch up on

Narnman

So I did the math, and if the Dyson sphere is 200 million km in diameter, and Earth is 12,750km in diameter, then the DS is 15,686 times Earth's diametrer. Multiplying all 3 axis (15,686x15,686x15,686) would mean the surface area is about 3.86 TRILLION times as much as Earth. 15,686x15,686 works out to 246 million like the episode said, so I think the writers messed up on the math. Even if every star in the Milky Way had an Earth type planet, the Dyson sphere could still house at LEAST 10x as many people as the entire rest of the galaxy. So yeah, the scale of the thing is insane. EDIT - So the TNG writers were correct, I was wrong. Calculated volume forgetting that surface area doesn't scale the same way. Makes sense when you remember the surface is ultimately 2 dimensional and so only needs to be squared. 246 million Earths is correct. Still, pretty insane. With the nerd shit out of the way, I know a lot of people criticize this episode for the friction that occurs between Geordi and Scotty and wanted the whole crew to just endlessly fawn over having a "living legend" walk among them. First off, I just don't think that would make a compelling episode. Also Scotty is a legend to US as Trek fans, but would he really be a legend to people serving a century after his heyday just because they serve on a ship bearing the same name? I mean I'm sure they've heard of him and would love to chat with him about his adventures when things aren't as hectic. I'm sure there are lots of sailors in the US navy who would kill for a chance to have a conversation with Halsey or Nimitz or some of the more famous sailors in US naval history. But would they be as hyped to speak to an engineer JUST because they served on the New Jersey or the Enterprise or the Yorktown? Probably not so much. It would be cool, sure, but just because a ship is famous doesn't mean people a century later have the crew roster memorized. But besides all that, the WHOLE POINT of the episode is shining a light on how people can lose their purpose in old age, only to show later that even a man well past his prime can still contribute something of value. I get that Geordi was being kinda rude, but honestly so was Scotty. He was acting like all these middle aged "kids" running the engineering section of Starfleet's most advanced ship have no idea what they're doing, instead of just assuming tech has changed in the last 3/4 of a century. The thing that really bugged me was Picard did what I would have. He offered to set Scotty up with the materials to refresh himself on newer technology, and Scotty brushed off the idea. Like dude, you gotta meet them halfway. Remember back in Trouble with Tribbles how Scotty was HAPPY to be confined to quarters so he could nerd out with tech manuals? He should have been all over that idea. Also would have been nice for someone to mention that McCoy and Spock are still alive, and to a lesser extent the crew of the Bozeman who were from his time. It's a great episode that tackles head on what a lot of seniors experience as they get older and feel like the world has no further use for them. There is however 1 other Trek episode that I feel tackles that subject even better. Still, Relics is S tier

Timothy Nikiforovs

that ensign looks like Mark Zuckerberg

Narnman

the music choice for that scene is most effective

Narnman

Yes, the Enterprise-A had three crew members who were captain by rank. Kirk, Spock and Scotty.

Wade MacKinnon

I’m like write a good story.. then be like look Scotty’s back! I guess I probably would have still written TLJ. 😆

Philbot

someone on youtube recently uploaded a deleted scene where Scotty talks to Troi in this episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7MZb93Xxww

Narnman

He literally kicked the door down to get to that assassin, then shot him through a window. Who else can claim that?!

Worf and Riker Ride Again

Do you think someone can become an Admiral of Engineering?

Worf and Riker Ride Again

It’s kinda funny but because of 5 and 6.. the interiors are not that different anymore..

Philbot

Also poor Franklin would have beamed out successfully

Worf and Riker Ride Again

That IS a controversial opinion. I love they left it the same. They knew that bridge design was important to fans. I also just headcanon mid 23rd C design as a result of both a regression in tech after WW3, and rudimentary solutions to accessability for a wide range of alien species to operate the ship - promoting the multi-cultural/species nature of the Federation, that got refined to what we get in TNG.

Nolan

Hope you guys go back to BSG at some point. By the end, it will definitely be one of your favorite shows.

DustmanNorochj

🤯

Timothy Nikiforovs

I listened to that episode of her podcast a few weeks back when I was taking a walk

Timothy Nikiforovs

I love going into episodes like this with you guys, where it's just a random episode. Like, oh, season six episode four, eh? Then I'm over here rubbin my hands together like "heh heh, they don't know what's about to happen here"...certainly won't be the last time!

Ian Meyers

Wonderful episode great tribute to Scotty

AzoriusMage

Same. It's a shame nobody told him "oh by the way, Dr McCoy is still kicking around, and Spock is on Romulus. We could probably smuggle in a message".

Timothy Nikiforovs

I'm sure I did my math wrong lol. History and biology have been my specialties

Ricky

I calculated in kilometers. Earth is about 12,750km in diameter, and the Dyson sphere was 200 million km across or about 15,686 times Earth's diameter. Since they're both spheres, you just need to cube that number(that sounds weird) and you get 3.86 trillion times Earth's surface. If the sphere was actually the size of Earth's orbit(300 million km) the surface area would be I think 13 trillion earths. Either way, a hell of a lot more than 250 million.

Timothy Nikiforovs

the Dyson sphere is like the duplicate earth from TOS, never mentioned again on screen, only show up in books that are beta canon at best

Dark Kronis

You watched Battlestar too early IMO. I honestly feel if you had watched it mid Enterprise, or after Voyager you would have felt a lot differently about the show. Maybe when you get there - try it again.

Jon1701

Boy, the fact you couldn't have that donut just eats at you, huh?

Nolan

So you're saying Picard is fairly familiar with Sci-fi authors? Ieeenteresting....

Nolan

Totally! felt like a lame shoehorn.. I hate that Scotty simply must tell stories about things we saw onscreen..

Philbot

People complaining about Scotty being disregarded by younger people are complaining about the narrative and thematic thrust of the episode. It's called "Relics." It"s about being old and obsolete, though still historically fascinating, but ultimately useless. You take that out and the episode is just: "And now Scotty us here." It ties the Jenolan, the Sphere and Scotty together. People complaining about this are complaining about the entire point of the episode - the perception of aging. Geordie is BUSY. That Junior Ensign doesn't want to get in trouble with his boss. Scotty sadly got underfoot.

Nolan

I read the novelization of this episode and there was a subplot involving the young kid who showed Scotty to his quarters..The kid is sassy and shirks his duties.. and is on Riker’s shit list.. also there is an away mission to the surface of the sphere’s interior..

Philbot

I never liked this episode much. It’s great to see Scotty again! but it seems like shoehorned storyline. Every story Scotty tells were things we already saw onscreen..They mention Guinan a bunch a character Scotty hasn’t met and doesn’t know.. it seemed like she was supposed to be in the episode and they wrote around her? Also controversial opinion.. they should have taken the opportunity of Scotty’s Holodeck recreation to retcon the “Amazing Technicolor Dream bridge” 🤷‍♂️ If we just pretended that TOS always looked like the “stargazer” bridge I’d be fine with it.

Philbot

One really lovely little detail from some beta cannon, there's an encyclopedia of federation ships out there, known as Star Trek Shipyards. It notes against a future ship you will meet, that one of the design engineers involved was one Montgomery Scott. After he left the Enterprise, he didn't retire, he went on to help design starships at the cutting edge. (This isn't a spoiler, as it's purely beta cannon, never mentioned or discussed on screen)

FPG

ron moore is the mvp of TNG

penoyer79

BTW, I love the shirt Alex was rockin' in this one~

Shortskirtsandexplosions

We actually watched Babylon 5 “The Gathering” a couple years ago if that’s the pilot you’re referring to. It’s on the Patreon & channel. We will most likely watch the series one day

Josh (Target Audience)

That is one of several reasons, yes.

Josh (Target Audience)

I cannot get into it, I can't stand the handicam, the characters are paper thin to me, and I don't care about anyone on the show. Maybe it's also too melodramatic for my taste or something, I dunno. It's just uninteresting (e.g. boring) and the handicam makes it painful.

Jovet

People who drop spoilers like your your friend did, Alex.... are just fucking clueless. Please yell at him for me.

Tom Occhipinti

One thing I really like about this episode is that the B-Plot (Dyson Sphere shiet) is interesting enough for its own episode, even without the Scotty content. But they give it only enough attention to keep it mysterious and fascinating. And I think I'm starting to understand why y'all dislike Star Trek VI so much: there is no *closure* to the TOS crew and legacy. At least not satisfyingly so. This never bothered me because I was never close to the TOS continuity, and I've always admired VI on its own as a thriller story. I imagine that makes episodes like this that much more special to y'all~

Shortskirtsandexplosions

If I were to give a rebuttal to the plot generally not being that great, I would use a an aphorism said to me when I was learning to play drums as a kid. My instructor said to me, "a bad drummer can make a good band sound bad, but a good drummer can make a bad band sound great." You don't always need the craziest, or even most rememberable plots for a story, but if your characters and their interactions are done well, you will have a great episode. Characters are the real heart of a story. You can have the most amazing plot ever, but if your characters are not done well, the story will fall flat. Also, Dyson spheres are a real idea. It's something that is considered when analyzing astrological data. And when considering how many planets can fit inside a Dyson sphere, you have to think three dimensionally, i.e. volume. Creating a sphere (not a flat disk) around the Sun that is equal in size to that of the orbit of Earth around the Sun would allow 1.6 trillion Earths to fit inside that sphere (I think I did the math correctly... I didn't see an answer with a quick google search. Earth to Sun distance in miles = 93 million ; Earth diameter = 7,926.2 miles ; volume of a sphere is V = 4/3π(r)^3 ; plug those numbers in and I got 3.47914201x10^24 / 2.08585296x10^12 = 1.66797089x10^12. so that is 1.6 trillion.... I'm not a math person....)

Ricky

I haven't watched the reaction yet but I've seen lots of comments here about BSG. On the one hand it's the GOAT in so many amazing ways. On the other hand if the miniseries and more didn't convince you of that then maybe best to just move on. After all, you suffered through all of S1 + S2 of TNG and enthusiastically moved on to the awesome later seasons. BSG mostly hit its stride right from the start. How about trying Babylon 5 (not the clunky pilot please) which broke all the rules and set the bar for so much that was to follow, or Continuum to break out a cool direction less well tread.

Paul Hess

There have been a number of TNG episodes that have gotten a novilization. This was one of them it also got an audio book adaption that Lavar Burton introduced and James Doohan narrated. Both Guinan and O'Brian turns up in them. Doohan's impersonation of O'Brian was spot on. On another note, there is a comic book story where Captain Morgan Bateson is having difficulty adjusting to being thrown 70 years into the future. He gets some help when he gets a visit from Captain Scott who is now in the same boat. So to speak. On yet another note it's a Dyson Sphere not a Dyson Ball. No references to expensive vacume cleaners please.

Keith S

Not a fan of this episode other than scotty it's a bore

Josef Nitervol

Now I listened to the discussion fully. BSG I recall you being peeved that it ended on a cliffhanger and felt it was just a tease for season two. The show is formatted like a soap opera, it never ends, and there is no wrap up in direction at the end of each season. The writing is far superior on that show than anything in TNG, and you can even see how the TNG Chief is kind of remade as the BSG chief with the whole blue collar vibe. Even the debate about Hugh was remade with more nuance in BSG. The TNG with the trial and the woman hell bent on getting a conviction was redone on BSG with the Chief as the one under suspicion. it's a show that is not held back by needing to be child friendly and just comparing the writing for XO Riker vs XO Saul Tighe is all one needs to compare the two and decide which was the better written show.

Ken R

The TOS bridge scene almost was the bridge from the movies because the prospect of building the old bridge was too expensive. But they learned someone had a fan built Captain's chair and navigation console that they borrowed and they built one wedge of the bridge, enough for closeup and medium shots. Then they used the empty bridge footage from This Side of Paradise. They put the wide shot on a loop and blue screened (green screened?) Jimmy Doohan onto the loop. So, in the end they were able to do the scene without breaking the budget.

Mike Rogers

I’m happy to hear the Siren’s song of BSG still call to you sometimes. I was pretty disappointed when you guys cut it short.

EnigmaticPenguin

And Bringing in a Nostalgic Characters six seasons in you've earned that right

Scarpad’s Domain

That shot from “This Side of Paradise” is the only time in the entire TOS that we see the bridge empty of people.

Column Meanie

Every time I see Scotty toast the old crew and say "Here's to ya, lads." I get a little choked up.

Collin Freeman

Yeah but his theory was nothing like it’s presented in this episode. However, how it is presented here is just too cool.

Column Meanie

In his recent long interview with Katee Sackhoff on her YouTube show which I highly recommend Ron Moore said that the main reason for doing For All Mankind was being pissed as a huge TOS fan that the actual advancement of space travel didn't go ahead as he had hoped.

Sam Langanke

The first time I've ever wished I could respond with a gif, "Oh booooy I've been waitin' for this!!"

Ross Townsend

If Scottish Scotty had met up with Irish O'Brien, there would have been WAY too much drinking and not much else.

Collin Freeman

Can't hurt

Collin Freeman

Larry Nivens Ringworld explored the concept where at the same or similar distance from the star but it was a few hundred miles wide The creators harvested materials to build it and swept the rest of the system clear to avoid asteroid strikes Aparantly Freeman Dyson liked the concept much to the authors surprise that he ever got to hear about it I’m never sure if the Halo franchise drew its inspiration from that or a parallel concept

Andrew Duffy

An example that fear of spoilers wasn't a thing in these days is the german dubbed title of this episode. Translated it was called "Visit from the old Enterprise", Literally!

Sam Langanke

It was our favorite part of the first season by far

Josh (Target Audience)

I just saw that for the first time too and was like... ahhhh.

Alan F

To me it was just lazy or bad writing and directing to caricature Scotty's fish out of water behavior and everyone's reaction to it. It could have and should have been done more subtly and poignantly. Nevertheless it gets a pass because it was a good episode and it was fantastic to see Scotty back ... his scenes on the original Enterprise bridge and on the Jenolin more than made up for other shortcomings. When this first aired I was ROTFL with the "it's green" scene. Total fan service and I loved it.

Paul Hess

For years I never got the Troi inclusion at the end Turns out there’s a deleted scene I found about a month ago, which I assume is before he goes to Ten Forward… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v7MZb93Xxww&pp=ygUYdG5nIHJlbGljcyBkZWxldGVkIHNjZW5ld

Andrew Duffy

Battlestar....SO SAY WE ALL!!!!!!....just do it ...trust us.....

Derek Orr

@Ken R exactly!....but instead they lend him a tiny little short range shuttle and kick him out and hope he doesn't gets lost....but hey thanks for saving starfleets flagship AGAIN...

Derek Orr

I'd give that honor to Nimoy. He played emotion without outwardly showing emotion and created the most complex character in Trek

Ken R

Yes, Freeman Dyson was a real person and did put forth the idea of a Dyson sphere.

Ron Hubbard Jr

Scotty could have been drafted to be a history professor. He was witness to monumental incidents in Federation history. He is actually the guy who killed the assassin at the conference with the Klingons, he was there for the first sighting of Romulans, he is the guy who adapted cloaking tech, he doesn't have to go to the Daystrum Institute because he watched Daystrum himself have a breakdown. And he's the only guy in Starfleet who was possessed by Jack The Ripper. They should have had him document this stuff in interviews before it's too late.

Ken R

Great reaction guys. But leave it to you two to have Jimmy Doohan on the Enterprise D and complain that there’s no Colm Meaney! 😉

Jonathan Llyr

Guys, BSG is definitely worth it, 100%.

Marko

They recreated a section of the original Enterprise bridge for this episode. The establishing shot as he looked into the bridge and then the shot of the viewscreen were taken from the original series.

Ron Hubbard Jr

In the early 70s I saw Dyson, Buckminster Fuller and Isaac Asimov at a panel discussion at the New School, NYC. I was mesmerized.

Michael Metrick

I don't even think the term "spoiler" had been coined at that point. I believe when social media became a thing, that's when people began to be more aware of it.

David Wayne Fox

nice !!

Derek Orr

Scotty was promoted to the rank of Captain in ST3 when he was made of Captain of Engineering on the Excelsior.

Ron Hubbard Jr

Compared to new tReK, yes, absolutely.

Aaron Wells

on the contrary it was the opposite....the TNG crew (except Picard) where quite dismissive and rude to this living legend they had among them.....just no time for him...there should have been line ups down the hall to meet an original Enterprise crew member legend...the man served with freaking James T Kirk.....and then he saves their ass and their cozy hotel ship...and they just dump him at the curb with a tiny little shuttle ....hope you dont get lost bud..thanks for saving Starfleets flagship again.....

Derek Orr

I don't think there's even close to enough matter in the entire solar system to make much of a dent. Dyson Swarm is a much more practical approach.

Aaron Wells

I know it's hard to believe, but Trek previews were even more spoilery than YouTube discussion threads.

Paul Hess

Edward James Olmos’s performance as Adama is possibly the greatest sci fi TV drama performance ever. I’d be surprised if you don’t warm to it.

Aramis Calcutt

Do I need to get some booze to drink with this reaction? IYKYK

Paul Hess

Yes they missed that!

Derek Orr

Its pretty good..but honestly the movie era scotty around Star Trek 4 and later was turned into a bit of comedic bafoon, Vs the usually more serious and intense TOS era 2nd officer & Chief Engineer Scotty.....its especially stands out when you see how physically different movie era Scotty is from TOS scotty as well

Derek Orr

I was a bit miffed by the dismissive attitude towards Scotty. He's an old salt who has SEEN things and DONE things, as opposed to riding a barstool and TALKING about things. I think part of a young man's duty is to listen to old men's stories. There's an important symmetry to that. That first ensign who blew him off, whatever, he's like 21 years old...but La Forge should know better. Old men and young men have much to learn from one another. "As we are now, they once were. As they are now, we soon shall be."

Aaron Wells

There must be something wrong with my monitors...they're all ripply and blurry. 😪 You're right, Josh. I barely remember the first run of TOS back in the sixties, but as a teenager I used to watch them in syndication everyday after school in the 70's. , Trust me, the moment Scotty walks on to that Holodeck bridge 20 years later was a very emotional experience. I would venture to say you got the better experience in terms of the surprise of his appearance, though... those darn "next week" previews were quite spoilery.

David Wayne Fox

its pretty subtle actually for messaging I think ...especially compared to Nu Trek

Derek Orr

its pretty special considering its source idea being real world sci fi author

Derek Orr

Last weeks episode was thrown together last minute and written by a committee in a hurry...because James Doohan's schedule changed and he could not Relics at the original time so they had to shove in last weeks lame Troi torture and euthanasia episode

Derek Orr

That was a series I was thinking of, too, but didn't want to reveal anything...

Joe Concepts

Terry Matalis has entered the chat :)

Derek Orr

Well, he said he was ready and eager to help, but instead of helping he just waxed on about past times and memories instead of actually helping with the problem at hand.

Jovet

Surely ya’ll liked this one!

William Roberts

No tears, but they were close!

Jovet

Also, I almost got to have lunch with Freeman Dyson once when I was in grad school. That's it, that's the story.

Steven Linden

Yeah, I think the crux didn't sink in with them: it's building a giant sphere around a star at the distance the Earth is from the Sun. Besides being non practical, it would be an incredibly difficult feat no matter how technologically sophisticated your society is.

Jovet

I wish they had shown Scotty on the bridge and also seeing the exterior of the 1701-D and admiring the beauty of the modern technology etc. Also would have been nice to hear Picard or data mention oh yeah we met Bones and we met Spock..you should give them a call lol. Scotty was promoted to Captain way back in Star Trek 3. Captain is a rank as well as a position…2 different things. For example most of the ships captains in the US Navy are actually commanders in rank…only the largest ships have captains that are also holding the rank of Captain. Overall I loved the combination of nostalgia and also pure sci fi of an actual dysons sphere…and yes it was the size of 250 MILLON class M planets. They referenced elan or troyus and also wolf in the fold from TOS. And the TNG episode with space baby thing and spoiled milk. The one overall weakness for me was treating Scotty a bit dismissive…like yes he can’t just slide into being an engineer until he catches up…but the man is a living legend…that kid who showed him his quarters and everyone else (especially Geordi) should have been way more awestruck and excited. Picard was though and that was nice to see and a beautiful scene on the recreated 1701 Bridge. And it was kinda a bit rude to just essentially say hey so thanks for saving our ass old man, here is a tiny little shuttle, now get out please we have work to do and places to go…hope you manage to find somewhere to go and don’t get lost 🙄🙄

Derek Orr

W fans

Josh (Target Audience)

Probably already said, but your bridge greenscreen assumption was what was being planned until...word got out to the fan community about the episode. Immediately, several fans offered to loan and had shipped to Paramount their bridge recreations for use in "Relics."

Mark Chrisco

For All Mankind is very much alternative history imo. Its very well done, if a little heavy on the messaging at times.

Aaron Wells

So about the writing process - from what I've read, someone had pitched a story involving the transporter loop idea, and while they didn't like the story, they bought it because Michael Piller had the idea that they could use it as a way to bring a TOS character back. They debated which character to use, but knew they couldn't use Spock or McCoy since we'd already seen them, and they felt like bringing Kirk back would be too big a thing for a one-off episode, so they settled on Scotty. The script was assigned to Ron Moore because he was the biggest TOS fan on the writing team. For the bridge set, they initially thought it would be too expensive, but Ron Moore pushed for them to find a way to do it. Eventually, they came up with a way to build only part of the set and use blue screen for the rest. The footage used for the blue screen was from the TOS episode "This Side of Paradise", from the scene where the bridge is empty. The captain's chair was actually a fan-built chair that had been made for a convention.

Steven Linden

I think my concussions were more severe - Josh

Josh (Target Audience)

Speaking to how this is more like you wanted the Spock episode. I feel like sometimes that can be a fault of some of the writers of these kinds of things. They get into their head that they are an artist and they can't just do some fun, nostalgic fan servicey story. Like they're too good for that. Sometimes, that's just the assignment! It's that kind of writer's reasoning that makes them convince themselves that, say, Luke, Han and Leia shouldn't meet up and have a fun adventure together in the SW sequels. I'm not a "hater" of those movies, but sometimes in a franchise, you SHOULD give fans what they want.

Joe Concepts

I had the old man Scotty action figure back when I was a kid.

Just another Red Shirt

It's funny, Scotty dying never even occurred to me the first time I watched it, but rewatching it this time, I can see how it might feel like a possibility. Definitely feels like something modern television would do...

Brendon Waldron

After turning off "Farpoint" half way through for being dull, I hadn't watched a TNG for 30 yrs, and then while it was on Netflix I read about this episode and watched it. It's one of the best episodes. Scotty > entire TNG crew.

Ken R

I mentioned it in my patron take, hopefully they read and reacted to it!

THE LORE!!!

I don't think too many would disagree, just that it's possible for Scotty's behaviour to be both annoying but also understandable...

Brendon Waldron

So either only Alex is unlucky with people spoiling things, or Josh just doesn't listen to people very well.

Joe Concepts

For everyone wondering where Troi was this episode here’s her scene that was cut: https://youtu.be/v7MZb93Xxww?si=LqoBp2LBcA_IEFUx

Eric Bundy

While the Dyson sphere B-story is pretty perfunctory, I do like that we get an engineering miracle in the same episode as the engineering miracle worker.

KevinH

Awesome, simply awesome.

startrekiborg

There's a deleted scene from this episode that's included in the Blu-Ray!

Anthony Goodwin

People have done the math: This Dyson sphere is the same diameter as the Earth's ORBIT around the sun. That's like 200 million kilometers in diameter, averaged, since the orbit is not perfectly circular. And 200 is an easier number. Applying the formular for surface of a sphere, that makes for an area of 125 quadrillion, 700 million square kilometers. If the Federation has around 150 member worlds of Earth-similar size, that means the Dyson sphere has a surface area around 1.6 million times larger than the entire United Federation of Planets. /nerd

Aaron Wells

LOL!!!

Jovet

The surface area of Earth is about 197,000,000 mi² (510 000 000 km²). The internal surface area of that Dyson sphere would be about 12,140,000,000,000,000 mi² (31 400 000 000 000 000 km²).

Jovet

I'm telling you guys, you gotta watch For All Mankind from Ron Moore for the channel. It is so freaking good. It's kinda like a prequel Trek show.

Michael Mannisto

This is not just a great Scotty appearance... It's one of his best. Very heartfelt and emotional

Alan F

Alex: "I don't forget things that are a detriment to my happiness." Same. Same. ..... *sigh*

Forbidden Donut

Lol Star Trek slander!!! For shame! Haha I still love TUC but there is also alot of nostalgia there, first trek film seeing in the theater and I remember all the pre-release trailers/hype. Just saw a delted Scotty/Troi scene the other day I hadn't seen. On youtube.

Jason Aud

Just finished... and I rate this reaction & episode a... yeSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Also, loving the intros this season. Great work guys.

A G

Episode 238, at this moment in time, marks the beginning of the 2nd quarter of all of trek

froggeh

I have been waiting for this episode since I first found you guys on YouTube and realized how much you loved the TOS characters. Like Josh said this was a great episode in regards to nostalgia. It's one of my favorite episodes for call backs to original characters. It was emotional, sentimental and TOS feel in how they rescued Enterprise D with a crazy plan. Glad you guys appreciated it as much I still do. *No Spoiler* Oh and the dyson spere is a real theory, I googled it a few years go.

Spritzy

I love the By Any Other Name “it’s green!” reference

Terminaldogma01

Perfect use of that line.

Spencer Loften

Don't worry about it, fellas - Scotty on the Enterprise bridge means we break out the Kleenex every single time. Jimmy Doohan was marvelous in that scene.

North

20:54 In "Up the Long Ladder" it was mentioned that replicators can provide authentic adult beverages if desired.

Jovet

The only thing missing in this episode would be Scotty following Geordi on one of his infamously cringe dates and just roasting the shit out of his rizz.

EnigmaticPenguin

Me also!

Monty Crawford

Oh boy, I've been waiting for this episode

MrDeadstu

I've been looking forward to this

Tony B

I always tear up at Scotty on the old Enterprise Bridge.

Gregory Foster

5:25 Josh's non-reaction! LOL!!!

Jovet

I'm just going to say it even if most people will probably disagree but Scotty was disrespectful and annoying. Had someone acted on his Enterprise as he did on the D he would have ripped their head off. Imagine someone walking into Scotty's engineering room and starting to screw with things he didn't understand because his knowledge was decades out of date.

Phillip Grischa

If you want, I can call your work and tell them your cat has a cold, and you need to leave early..!

Badger

WOOHOO!! My whole family enjoyed this one! To this day I still use something related to the "never tell them how long it take if you want them to think you're a miracle worker" Yeah I know that's not the quote, but that sentiment I've used frequently in my job. "This...is NOT Scotch!" "It is GREEN!" (Not sure if you catch that throwback)

Firekrys FWO

Scotch. Neat. 👍🏼

The Ninth Doctor

Yes! Grabbing coffee and enjoying this one. Thank you! "That's no moon.." What a great watch! I love when trek goes above and beyond just for the fans.

Badger

Show me the S Tier! No bloody A, B, C or D.

EnigmaticPenguin

Gah! And I'm stuck at work! An hour and a half to go!!

River Acheron

Let's forkin' GOOOOOOO!! *Pours out a Single Malt* Sorry, Alex. Fireball takes a break this week.

A G


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