Star Trek TNG S3E10–12: The Defector | The Hunted | The High Ground - "Hard to make better episodes than this" | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 052)

Star Trek TNG S03E16-18 The Offspring, Sins of the Father, Allegiance “The Scarlet K” | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 054)

This week on To Baldly Go, Aaron and Nate continue Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 with The Offspring, Sins of the Father, and Allegiance. We get a major Data episode that leads to a surprising split in ratings, a huge leap forward in Klingon lore, and a Picard mystery that feels a little like Star Trek: Among Us. This week we get: - Humanity and parenting - The Scarlet K - Do intentions matter? In The Offspring, Data creates a child, leading us into questions about humanity, parenting, knowledge, understanding, and whether this is one of the better “is Data alive?” stories. In Sins of the Father, Worf is pulled into Klingon politics, family history, and a major cultural reckoning that could fundamentally change his future. And in Allegiance, Picard is placed in a strange test of identity, authority, and intention, while an imperfect copy of him causes problems back on the Enterprise. Join us for another first-time reaction discussion as we continue our release-order watchthrough of Star Trek.

Star Trek TNG S3E13-15 Deja Q, A Matter of Perspective, Yesterday’s Enterprise "Masterpiece Theater" | First Time Reaction - To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 053)

This week on To Baldly Go, we continue our first-time watch of Star Trek: The Next Generation with Season 3, Episodes 13-15: Deja Q, A Matter of Perspective, and Yesterday’s Enterprise. This week we get: * Q becomes human and mortal * Judicial standards in the 24th century * A masterpiece? In Deja Q, Q returns to the Enterprise stripped of his powers and forced to experience life as a human. We talk about Q growing on Aaron, the relationship between Q and Picard, Data explaining the human experience to Q, and Q explaining experiencing the human experience to Data. In A Matter of Perspective, Riker finds himself accused of murder, and the Enterprise crew must work through competing versions of the same events. We discuss whether anyone really wants to be in court in the 24th century, burden of proof, hearsay, and how being wrong does not necessarily mean someone is lying. And then we arrive at Yesterday’s Enterprise, widely considered one of the best episodes in all of Star Trek. We discuss the return of Tasha Yar, the alternate version of the Enterprise-D, Picard refusing to surrender, and why this episode shows exactly what this medium can do when Star Trek is firing on all cylinders.

Star Trek TNG S1E12-14 The Big Goodbye | Datalore | Angel One - “Another Lost Episode” | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 036.5)

In this lost episode of To Baldly Go, we return to early Star Trek: The Next Generation with Season 1’s “The Big Goodbye,” “Datalore,” and “Angel One.” This week we get a decent episode with a weak close, a possible “Enemy Within” redux, and an episode that may be a bit too clever for its own good. We discuss Crusher’s strong showing in “The Big Goodbye,” the limits and missed potential of the holodeck, Brent Spiner’s excellent work in “Datalore,” Lore’s tell, Wesley’s role, and the strange execution of “Angel One.” We also wander into fake mystery novels, Sons of Anarchy, original-series movie lighting, Parks and Recollection, Romulan references, and Gates McFadden trivia.

Star Trek TNG S3E10–12: The Defector | The Hunted | The High Ground - "Hard to make better episodes than this" | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 052)

In this episode of To Baldly Go, we continue Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 with “The Defector,” “The Hunted,” and “The High Ground.” This week, we get: * One hell of an episode to come back to * Have we seen this before? * An interesting concept, poorly executed We start with “The Defector,” a tense Romulan story featuring the return of Tomalak, a powerful ending, Data performing Shakespeare, and a big step forward in Star Trek storytelling. Then, in “The Hunted,” we discuss what happens when soldiers are created for war and then abandoned afterward, with side trips into MKULTRA, The Original Series, James Cromwell, and Enterprise security procedures. Finally, “The High Ground” gives us an episode with a provocative concept that we wanted to like more than we did, raising questions about terrorism, perspective, historical references, and whether the execution lives up to the idea. Join us as we discuss the next three episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation on To Baldly Go Podcast.

Star Trek TNG S03E07-09 The Enemy, The Price, The Vengeance Factor – “The Fiftieth!!!” | First Time Reaction – To Baldly Go Podcast (Ep. 051)

This week on To Baldly Go, we continue our first-time watch of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 with episodes 7 through 9: “The Enemy,” “The Price,” and “The Vengeance Factor.” This week, we get: * Worf going against expectations * The ethics of the empath * Personal connections to Star Trek In “The Enemy,” Geordi is stranded with a Romulan on Galorndon Core, giving us a strong example of what Star Trek can do when it mixes survival drama, political tension, and character conflict. We talk about Worf’s surprising refusal, Romulans in Federation space, disability representation among Romulans, and how the episode deepens the lore. In “The Price,” the Ferengi are back, and Troi gets pulled into both a romantic story and a moral dilemma around empathic abilities. We discuss why this one does not really work for us, the creepier moments, and whether there was a version of this episode that could have landed better. In “The Vengeance Factor,” the Enterprise gets pulled into a murder mystery involving old feuds, tribalism, and revenge. We talk about Riker, Yuta, Worf’s very different relationship to vengeance, and why we are all the villain in somebody’s story. A bunch of generally solid episodes this week — even if one of them is definitely doing more heavy lifting than the others.