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Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 70: The Most Toys (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Kivas Fajo is a man with "no moral difficulties. At all." Saul Rubinek plays him with the ruthlessness and charm of Dr. Mengele. (By all accounts, Mengele could be very charming.) And like Mengele, Fajo collects things that please him, such as the Rejac Crystal and Data.

"The Most Toys" is eerie and creepy and exudes a strange fascination. It's like a car wreck: one is compelled by the force of human nature to look. There's just something strangely attractive about evil. Make no mistake, Kivas Fajo is evil. Sure he prances about like a demented gnome, but he also kidnaps, steals, and kills without compunction. He uses Data's programmed value of all life against him. When degradation and threats don't work, the collector produces an illegal disrupter and aims it at his assistant Varria (Jane Daly), who is herself a prisoner in his stable. Fajo will stop at nothing to get Data to sit in the chair. When Data finally does sit in the chair, the viewer understands that everybody has his price--even Data. Especially Data. That price is another being's life.

This episode contains the most chilling line in TNG's history: "I cannot feel pleasure. I am only an android." It's extraordinary not only for great writing and acting but also for its sad backstory. Actor David Rappaport was originally cast as Fajo, but committed suicide before filming could be completed. The ironic thing is that "The Most Toys" is all about the affirmation of life. --Kayla Rigney

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 42: Q Who? (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Everybody's favorite Star Trek trickster god, Q (John de Lancie), returns to the Enterprise despite promises never to trouble the ship again. Q has been kicked out of the Q continuum, he's bored, and he's decided he wants to join the crew of the Enterprise and go exploring with them. When Captain Picard says no, Q gets angry and knocks the ship into a particularly dangerous part of the unexplored universe, just to see how well they can fend for themselves without his help. Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), the bartender of Ten-Forward, has been to this part of space before, and she recommends leaving as quickly as possible. Needless to say, they don't leave fast enough, and they meet up with the cyborg race called the Borg. After one battle, the Borg prove to be stronger, and Guinan says their brief taste of human technology will no doubt spur them on to seek it out again. An auspicious introduction to a brilliant villain: the Borg. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 43: Samaritan Snare (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: When Picard refuses to allow Dr. Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) to perform an operation on him, even though she's qualified, she tells him to check into a hospital on Starbase 515. Turns out he needs a cardiac replacement because an earlier replacement was faulty, but he didn't want the operation done on the ship because he didn't want to appear weak. While he's gone, the Enterprise answers a distress call from some alien sad sacks whose ship is broken and who are far from home. Since they are reported as being a benign species of scavengers, searching the universe for things to make their ship go, the Enterprise sends over Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge to make the necessary repairs. Deanna Troi assesses the situation and immediately senses that Geordi is in great danger, as he is something that will make their ship go and they will be loath to give him up. It's up to Riker to formulate a plan to get him back. As the crew of the Enterprise learns not to judge a seemingly idiotic race by their appearance, Picard learns there is strength in facing up to one's weaknesses. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 44: Up The Long Ladder (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Answering a distress call consisting of an Earth code that hasn't been used in centuries, the Enterprise stumbles upon a utopian colony that launched from Earth during the European hegemony (sometime between 2123 and 2190). The utopians are a tribe of bawdy Irish hedonists (many of whom are drunks, of course) who have turned their backs on technology in favor of simple farm living. They are so committed to their animals that they refuse to travel without 'em. Oh, how primitive! Oh, the comedy! The Irish tribe mentions "the other colony," which the Enterprise tracks down. This other colony is technologically advanced, but its members have depleted both their sex drive and their genes through generations of cloning. In order to save both colonies, Captain Picard and the crew must play matchmaker between the intellectual ascetics and the hedonistic technophobes. Along the way, Riker gets a little action with one of the farm girls. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 27: The Child (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Season 2 opens with the introduction of a bearded William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes), the promotion of Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) to chief engineer, and the replacement of Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher with Dr. Pulaski (Diana Muldaur). With a scene that's much sexier than it has any right to be, a Tinkerbell-like spark enters the ship, finds a sleeping Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), moves under her covers, and impregnates her. The alien baby starts to grow much faster than a normal gestation period, shrinking the time frame down to a couple of days. Worf wants to terminate the pregnancy, Data wants to study the life form, and Troi decides to keep the baby no matter what anyone thinks. Once born, the boy continues its rapid growth, but is discovered to have an adverse effect on the specimens of a dangerous plasma plague they are carrying to a scientific research facility. None too subtly, the whole episode explores ideas about family. Also included is a guest spot by independent-film veteran Seymour Cassel. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 28: Where Silence Has Lease (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: On their way to the Morgana Quadrant, which has yet to be visited by a manned Federation ship, the Enterprise runs across an amoeba-like hole of blackness in space. Sensors do not indicate any energy or form, probes shot into it disappear without a trace, and even Counselor Troi can get no sense from it. Worf calls for a yellow alert, relating an old Klingon legend of a giant black space that devours entire ships. When the void engulfs the Enterprise, they find themselves lost within it, unable to find their way out. Then things start to get weird. Other vessels show up. A Romulon battle ship and a Federation star cruiser appear, but they are strangely empty. Turns out the void is one of those giant, uncharted sentient beings that is trying to learn about humans and the concept of death, and is doing so by killing members of the Enterprise one at a time. Once again, the contradictions of humans are on trial, and it's up to Captain Jean-Luc Picard to talk the ship and all of humankind out of trouble. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 30: The Outrageous Okona (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: New-school Trek meets old-school comedy in this lighthearted episode. The Enterprise comes to the aid of dashing, lovable rogue Captain Okona. Okona's easy wit charms the ladies of the crew and inspires Data to learn about the peculiar human trait of humor. Okona is soon in hot water as two different factions demand his surrender, while Data is up to his ears in shtick with the help of Guinan and a holodeck comic played by Joe Piscopo. Piscopo is given alarmingly free reign in defining what is funny, but it is Brent Spiner's playful illustrations of Data's poor comic touch that come off best. Also keep an eye out for a young Teri Hatcher in the transporter room, appropriately cast as an attractive crew member. --Ali Davis

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 112: Violations (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Obviously, the ideas of repressed memories and regression therapy were in the air when the writers came up with this episode. The Enterprise is transporting to Kaldra IV a delegation of Ullians, an alien race of telepathic historians. The Ullians are "archaeologists of the mind" who have been collecting memories of individuals on many worlds to be included in an ambitious library. There are rules that the Ullians must follow in collecting memories, such as never to enter the mind of a person without permission. It's a rule that one of them breaks when he becomes creepily attracted to Counselor Troi. From a distance, at night, he invades a memory she has of one of her romantic entanglements with Commander Riker. He then takes on the role of Riker in her mind and forces himself on her, essentially raping her. Troi falls into a coma. Riker is immediately suspicious of the guy, and soon enough he's in an action flashback and then a coma. Then Dr. Crusher ends up in a coma, too. Meanwhile, there's no proof that the comas are being caused by the Ullians, who have been a peaceful race for generations. When Troi wakes up, the evil Ullian suggests a mind probe, which he does himself, where he plants a false memory. Everything turns out fine, of course, thanks to some investigative research by Geordi and Data. Though the topic may be dated by current standards, the execution is quite good. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 131: Schisms (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: You know those aliens who give anal probes to rural farmers and perform cattle mutilations? Well, Earth is not the only focus of their surgical investigations, as the Enterprise is loath to discover. As the episode opens, Commander Riker has been having trouble sleeping. Rather, he's been falling asleep fine but waking up unrested. Soon others begin to feel "off" in a similar way. Then Geordi somehow winds up with a foreign bacterial infection that interferes with his visor. The trouble is traced to a subspace rupture in cargo bay four. Expanding on the late-'80s phenomenon of recovered memories, a group therapy session on the holodeck reconstructs the alien operating room that they all believe they've been taken to, giving them comfort in knowing the alien violations are really happening. Meanwhile, the subspace rupture is expanding to the point where it may destroy the Enterprise, and they need to figure out a way to stop it. The ultimate message of this episode is that there are forces in the universe that we may never understand, and it's more than likely that these forces are malevolent. Oh, and Data learns that poetry cannot be good or interesting if it's just technical formalism without emotional substance. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 132: True Q (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Unlike Ashley Judd, Olivia d'Abo never quite made the transition from television to indie films to becoming a glamorous Hollywood actress, but both of them served on the Enterprise early in their careers. Here, d'Abo guest stars as Amanda Rogers, a bright young intern working for Dr. Crusher. She is an honor student who hasn't quite figured out what she wants to do with her life. What she has come to realize is that she can do things like summon puppies at will and help people with a thought. This attracts the attention of Q (John de Lancie), who informs her she's the daughter of two members of the Q continuum who decided to become human. Along with training her in her abilities, Q has been assigned to convince her to renounce her human upbringing and join the continuum. Having taken an immediate dislike to Q and his lack of a moral center, she's not sure if she wants to. Her choice is between accepting her powers or being human and renouncing her powers forever. Once again, Q is given all the best lines ("Crusher gets more shrill with each passing year," he tells Picard with relish), once again proving that amoral villains have the most fun. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 133: Rascals (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: On their way back from shore leave, Captain Picard, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes), and Keiko O'Brien (Rosalind Chao) get caught in an energy field. Beamed back to the Enterprise before their shuttle breaks apart, they arrive with 40 percent less mass. Nobody was lost. Rather, they arrive back on the Enterprise as children, but with their adult minds still intact. Guinan adjusts quickly to being a kid again, but the others have problems. Though still a competent captain, Picard knows he can't be taken seriously in the body of a 12-year-old. Keiko is married to Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney), who has serious trouble adjusting to having a child bride. And Ro had such a miserable childhood, the last thing she wants to do is live it all over again. When some Ferengi hijack the Enterprise and quarantine all the adults, it's up to the freshly young to save the day. There are a couple of problems with this episode: it was far too easy for the Ferengi to take over the ship, and the transporter maneuvers needed to return them to adult form are never talked about as a possible fountain of youth. Director Adam Nimoy (son of Leonard) does get some good performances out of the kids, which is fun. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 36: The Dauphin (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Why should randy William Riker get all the ladies? When 16-year-old Salia (Jaime Hubbard) boards the Enterprise in order to be escorted to Daled IV, the planet she is destined to rule, Wesley Crusher gets an immediate crush on her. She seems to like him, too, much to the displeasure of her overprotective guardian Anya (Paddi Edwards). Wesley roams the ship asking for dating advice while Anya tries to lock Salia in her room. Of course, Wesley is following that unwritten Enterprise rule that encourages flings with people and aliens from outside of the ship, which guarantees they will be short-term affairs. It's a pattern established by Picard (see episode 24, "We'll Always Have Paris"), where duty and ambition always take precedence over personal relationships. Back to Wesley, though. When Wesley discovers the true nature of this alien life form, he must come to terms with the fact that looks aren't everything. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 135: The Quality of Life (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Sure, technology can make life easier, but when it advances too quickly it can be fraught with peril, or raise questions people aren't ready to answer. For years, Dr. Farallon (Ellen Bry) has been working on an orbiting particle fountain capable of large-scale planetary mining. Even though it isn't quite finished and tested yet, Geordi and the Enterprise have been sent to determine whether or not it is a more efficient method of mining than the more traditional means. Along with this large-scale invention, Dr. Farallon has also invented helper robots, which she calls "exocomps." A fan of Data's positronic brain, she has given her exocomps artificial intelligence. Turns out she may have given these exocomps a little too much intelligence, because they start acting in ways that look suspiciously like sentient self-preservation. When Geordi and Picard get trapped on the particle fountain as it's about to blow up, Data refuses to sacrifice a potential life form in favor of two proven life forms, even though they are the most important members of the Enterprise. Some excellent ideas are touched on here, but they're not taken to the extremes (particularly the ability to mass-produce a life form), but the action scenes are well executed. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 37: Contagion (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: There's trouble in the Neutral Zone. Following a distress signal, the Enterprise finds the USS Yamato stranded due to a systems failure, with the Romulans nearby. Even before the opening credits roll the starship explodes, killing everybody on board. Turns out the captain of the Yamato had been searching for Iconia, a planet legendary for its technological advances, and whose technology would be incredibly dangerous if it were to fall into the wrong (read: Romulan) hands. Then the computer virus that destroyed the Yamato starts to infect the Enterprise, and the Romulans show up and start threatening them. To make matters worse, Data himself becomes infected. A good yarn--and as the Internet continues to expand, stories like this one about computer viruses will become increasingly relevant. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 12: Too Short A Season (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: The planet Mordan IV has finally settled into peace after 40 years of civil war. Everything's going fine until terrorists take several Federation officials hostage. The leader of Mordan IV, Karnas (Michael Pataki), requests the presence of skilled negotiator Admiral Mark Jameson (Clayton Rohner), so it's up to the crew of the Enterprise to bring these two together. Admiral Jameson is in his mid-80s, but was requested because he handled negotiations on the planet before the civil war broke out. You can tell by the annoying old-age makeup on what is obviously a young actor that Jameson will eventually take a drug that will make him young again. The bad makeup is the biggest flaw in an otherwise good episode. Themes include the quest for youth, the uneasy balance between work and family, and owning up for past political mistakes. The episode is directed by Rob Bowman, a Next Generation veteran who's worked on tons of other TV shows and directed the X-Files feature film. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 40: The Icarus Factor (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: First, the good news: Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is being given the opportunity to captain his own ship, the Aries, on a dangerous mission into a remote part of space. The bad news is that the person offering him this mission is Kyle Riker (Mitchell Ryan), his father, whom he hasn't spoken with for 15 years. Ever since his mom died, Commander Riker has had bitter feelings toward his dad, believing he was all but abandoned by the man. Elsewhere on the ship, Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) has noticed that Worf (Michael Dorn) is in a particularly bad mood. With a little investigation and the help of Data and Geordi, he discovers it is the 10th anniversary of Worf's Age of Ascension, a special day that Klingons celebrate with family and pain. While Wesley figures out a way to celebrate Worf's big day, Commander Riker and his dad spar both mentally and physically, and through battle are able to say what they're feeling about each other. Trés masculine. Oh, and in a further attempt to give Dr. Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) more of a backstory, it's revealed that she used to date Kyle Riker. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 139: Aquiel (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: A subspace relay system located near the Klingon border is found to be deserted save for a friendly, tail-thumping dog. The two crew members are gone, the shuttlecraft is absent, and signs that a murder occurred stand in their place. Searching for clues, Geordi reviews the taped personal logs of Lieutenant Aquiel Uhnari, the junior officer at the relay, which have much to say about the high-handed arrogance of her supervisor, Lieutenant Rocha, and the continual provocations of Morag, a Klingon starship commander who patrols the sector. The lead looks promising, and while Picard engages in the delicate negotiations necessary to allow a Starfleet investigation to question a Klingon officer, Geordi continues viewing Uhnari's reports and letters home, eventually (wait for it!) becoming enamored of a woman who exists only on a prerecorded video. Until, that is, an indignant Klingon governor hands over Lieutenant Uhnari to the Enterprise. Now she's the prime suspect. Riker in particular is gunning for her, apparently because Rocha's records reveal him to be or, increasingly likely, to have been a fine young hotshot officer. Geordi, however, is not convinced; when he voices his doubts, Riker accuses him of perhaps lacking a certain objectivity regarding the situation. An episode that starts off swimmingly--the mystery is initially fairly intriguing, and Uhnari's communiqués offer a window into a boring, lonely Federation job almost unique in the series--rather quickly flounders on the shoals of bad acting, ludicrous character motivation (did Geordi learn nothing from his virtual and real encounters with Leah Brahms?), and a rather underwhelming climax that is possible only because each and every person on the ship overlooks something that's glaringly obvious to anyone watching at home. --Bruce Reid

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 145: Lessons (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Every once in a while on The Love Boat, Captain Merrill Stubing would be given his own chance at romance and love, but the writers would always have to find a way to get rid of Stubing's paramour by the end of the episode, lest they have to start writing in a new main character. In that vein, Captain Picard meets Lt. Commander Nella Darrin (Wendy Hughes), the sassy new head of Stellar Sciences. Sparks fly in Ten-Forward when Picard sees that she's also an accomplished musician. Those who saw episode 125, "The Inner Light," in which Picard is transported into an alternative life, knows he plays the flute, but it is Darrin who gets him to start playing duets. Soon enough duets become dates, and Picard starts to worry about conflicts of interest in dating a member of his crew. Things are brought to a head when they reach a planet whose firestorms are threatening a colony, and she's the one best equipped to set up a risky deflector shield array. Two things are certain: her life is in danger, and she won't be joining the Enterprise as a major crew member. If the ending is less than satisfying (it could have been much worse), it is nice that Riker isn't the only who gets a little nookie on the show. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 13: The Big Goodbye (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: When Captain Picard seeks some much needed recreation in the Enterprise's newly revamped holodeck, he decides to take a fantasy vacation as his favorite fictional private eye, Dixon Hill, a hard-boiled, trench-coated defender of WWII-era San Francisco. Picard's thrilling account of the computer-generated verisimilitude persuades a few shipmates to join him: Commander Data, Dr. Crusher, and some guy you've never heard of. Guess who gets shot when the holodeck malfunctions and its artificial creations turn very real and very deadly? The cast plays up to the genial humor of the witty story, and guest star Lawrence Tierney is a hoot as a Sidney Greenstreet-type villain philosophically intrigued by the notion that he doesn't truly exist. All that's missing is the playfulness that could have sent this over the top. Like many Next Generation episodes made before the show found its own voice and tone with the introduction of the Borg, "The Big Goodbye" suffers in comparison with the original Trek. One looks back fondly to Kirk and Spock's similar brush with '30s-style gangsters ("A Piece of the Action"), which had a goofy, go-for-broke sense of the situation's absurdity which this show lacks. And for all Picard's going on about the stunning reality of the simulated San Francisco, this is a disappointingly set-bound episode, cramped and confined when it most needs to break out of its story and breathe freely. --Bruce Reid

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 14: Datalore (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: When an assignment brings the Enterprise to the star system where Data was discovered and activated 26 years earlier, the crew takes the opportunity to investigate the enigma of the android's origin. Returning to the barren planet where Data was found, the away team finds an underground laboratory containing the disconnected segments of another cyborg, identical to Data. Reassembled and brought to life, this second android grins, twitches his cheek, and introduces himself as Lore. Lore explains that he was created to replace Data when the latter disturbed the humans with whom he interacted (a lie, Data realizes--it turns out to have been exactly the opposite); and that the colonists' fate was the work of a giant "crystalline entity." He offers to guide the crew to it so that it may be destroyed, yet immediately after he's left alone Lore sends secret messages to the giant snowflake in space promising to bring it quite a feast. Yes, it took only 14 episodes for Next Generation to dredge up that hoariest of clichés, the evil twin (right down to Lore's distinguishing facial tic and fondness for penny-dreadful dialogue). Brent Spiner has what fun he can with the dual roles--he was starting to find the humor and humanity in Data by this point, and the more risibly histrionic that Lore's lines become the more Spiner engages in some tasty scenery-chewing, but not even his mercifully campy turn can salvage some of the silliest scenes ever written for the series. And the rest of the crew is as smug as they ever were the first few seasons, despite being so obtuse that they can't even see through Lore's ludicrous sham when he switches places with an unconscious Data. --Bruce Reid

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 150: Second Chances (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Having already gone down the "evil twin" route (with Data and Lore) but still wishing to explore ideas of doubles and doubling, the writers of "Second Chances" involve Riker in a plot that would later be exploded into the Gwyneth Paltrow indie film Sliding Doors. Once upon a time, young Lieutenant Will Riker was the last crew member beamed off of a planet as its distortion field intensified. Eight years later he returns to the same planet as Commander Will Riker and learns that he both did and he didn't make it off the planet. The distortion field caused him to split into two, one of whom made it and one who didn't get away. Like bickering brothers, once the two Rikers meet, they don't get along. One thing that helped Lieutenant Riker get through his eight years as a castaway was thoughts of his main squeeze at the time, counselor Deanna Troi. When Lieutenant Riker finds out Commander Riker chose career over romance, he sees it as a chance to make things right. Then again, maybe it's just in his nature to choose career first. Jonathan Frakes hams it up in his dual role, while the true second chance belongs to Troi, who quickly falls back into a relationship with the Riker who didn't leave her on purpose. She's the true heart of the story, even though the twin Rikers get all the screen time. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 19: Coming Of Age (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: As Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) heads to Starfleet Academy to take their grueling entrance exam, a brash Starfleet commander (Robert Schenkkan) boards the Enterprise in order to conduct a top-secret investigation. Just as Wesley doesn't always know what is and isn't part of the test (he's one of four finalists for a single Academy slot), the crew of the Enterprise doesn't know who or what is being investigated. All they are told is that "something is wrong with the ship." Soon they figure out that Captain Picard is under investigation, as captain's logs are nitpicked for inconsistencies and past actions are questioned. This puts everybody on edge, as they can't understand what could be wrong with a captain as competent as Picard, but the commander is under strict orders not to blab about it until the investigation is over. Both story lines are eventually resolved, of course, but it's fun to see the members of the Enterprise get all uppity in defense of Picard. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 20: Heart Of Glory (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: In "Heart of Glory," Worf's Klingon heritage is examined and tested against his loyalty to the Enterprise. After detecting a disturbance in the Neutral Zone, the Enterprise discovers the remains of one ship and a damaged cargo vessel whose life-support systems are failing. A rescue team sent in to find the survivors discovers a trio of Klingons and brings them back to the ship. These Klingon officers don't trust the peace with the Federation and are also wanted by the Klingons for crimes that they have committed. The officers question Worf's dedication to his race, wondering aloud if his instincts have been dulled by living with civilized men, and try to goad him into joining their revolution. "Heart of Glory" does an excellent job at adding depth and personal history to the Worf character by forcing him to make decisions he'd rather not make. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 21: The Arsenal Of Freedom (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Investigating the disappearance of the USS Drake, the Enterprise receives a message from a seemingly uninhabited world. It turns out to be nothing more than an ancient, prerecorded sales pitch (delivered with sleepy enthusiasm by long-faced character actor Vincent Schiavelli) welcoming visitors to Minos, the arms market of the universe. Beaming down to the planet, Riker, Tasha, and Data wander about a lush forest before encountering a series of flying sentinels (vaguely resembling outboard motors minus their propellers), the first easily destroyed by phaser fire, but subsequent incarnations adapting themselves to the crewmembers' attacks. Meanwhile, Picard and Dr. Crusher also go exploring, finding themselves trapped in an underground cave where the captain must tend to the doctor's broken leg. With both Picard and Riker on the planet, La Forge finds himself in command for the first time; he's not the only one questioning whether he's ready for the job. Though the situation is old hat and unfolds with a certain tattered predictability, this is one of the better outings of The Next Generation's first season. The characters are fleshed out without resorting to too much overdrawn dialogue (even the usually aggravating almost-romance between Picard and Crusher is subtly drawn); in particular it's Geordi's day to shine, and LeVar Burton brings a nice self-confidence to the heretofore submissive engineer. Overlooking the studio-bound landscapes typical of early Star Trek, the episode also features some impressive effects in the brief scenes of the Enterprise's saucer separation, a clever device that fortunately was never overused on the show. Nothing groundbreaking, though no major missteps either. --Bruce Reid

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 35: The Measure Of A Man (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Philosophy takes center stage in this exploration of what constitutes a life form. Everybody knows that Data is an amazing machine, but is he more than that? Is he a sentient being? These questions, perfect for idle speculation, are put on trial on a brand-new starbase when Commander Bruce Maddox (Brian Brophy) decides he wants to disassemble Data in order to learn "its" secrets, so that he can build many more Datas in the future. Data, however, doesn't think his science ability is up to snuff. Maddox forces a transfer so that Data must undergo the experiments, which in turn leads to Data's resignation from Starfleet. But can he resign, or is he the property of Starfleet? Is he a person, or more like a toaster? A trial is set up in front of Judge Advocate General Philipa Louvois (Amanda McBroom); Riker is called on to argue that Data is the property of Starfleet, while Picard must defend Data as a new form of life. Excellent arguments are given for both sides. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 125: The Inner Light (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: When the Enterprise detects a foreign object floating in space, a relatively primitive probe of some sort, the crew members are surprised when a beam of energy is able to penetrate their shields. Before they know it (and before the credits), Captain Picard is knocked down and psychically linked to the probe through the beam. In Picard's head, he is on a desert planet where everybody thinks he is Kamin, a man recovering from a fever, even his wife. He quickly ascertains that he is not in a holodeck program, that he's not a prisoner, that there is no way to find--much less contact--the Enterprise, and that everybody thinks he is nuts for believing he is a starship captain. On the bridge, Dr. Crusher and company are trying to understand the beam's effect on Picard, while on the desert planet entire years are passing. Kamin gives up on ever finding the Enterprise. Over the years he falls in love with his wife and starts a family. Though previous episodes have explored the fact that Picard has foregone personal relationships in favor of his career, here he is forced to live a stable family life and, in so doing, finds out that not only is he good at it, but he likes it. When the beam turns itself off 20 minutes later, Picard emerges changed, having been given the chance to live the life he never thought he wanted. Excellent acting supports a strong and thoughtful script. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 154: Liaisons (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Ambassadors from the planet Iyaar arrive on the ship as part of a cultural exchange and throw everyone--particularly Worf and Troi--into a tizzy. As Worf, Michael Dorn shines in a role where he's got to repress his violent side, as the Iyaaran he is assigned to show around becomes more and more demanding, temperamental, and rude. Acting polite in diplomatic situations is just not his cup of tea, but it's very funny watching him try. Troi has a different problem. She has to teach her diplomat about eating for pleasure instead of just for nourishment, and the overabundance of chocolate and cake that results almost turns her off of dessert for good. Meanwhile, Picard has left on a shuttle to visit the planet Iyaar, but an energy disruption field forces him and his Iyaaran pilot to crash-land on the nearest M-class planet. The pilot dies and Picard meets Ana, a survivor from an earlier crash who falls instantly and obsessively in love with him, to the point where she nearly rapes him. Not to give anything away, but the mission of the Iyaarans is to learn more about strange human emotions firsthand, just as it was the mission of the writers to examine basic human emotions from an alien perspective. A fun episode, but not very deep. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 32: Loud As A Whisper (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Riva (Howie Seago) is one of the best mediators in the universe, and the Enterprise is assigned to transport him to Solais V, a planet that's been undergoing a bitter civil war for years. It turns out that Riva is a New Age deaf mute whose thoughts and ideas are communicated through a three-person chorus that follows him around wherever he goes, but he's good at his job anyway. On the way to the planet, however, Riva seems more interested in hitting on the empathic Deanna Troi than studying the history of the conflict. His cockiness not only jeopardizes the mission but his own chorus as well. With the help of Data and Troi, Riva is forced to find new ways to do his old job. Though the episode points to resolution, credit must be given to the writers for not tying up all of the loose ends by the finale. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 33: Unnatural Selection (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: This episode is devoted to giving background information and context for the acerbic new chief medical officer, Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur). When the Enterprise answers a distress call from the Lantree, a supply ship, they discover the crew has died of a mysterious virus that caused them to age rapidly. They trace the ship back to the Darwin Research Station, where the disease is ravaging most of the population. The only ones it's not affecting are the children, who have been bred to resist all disease. Dr. Pulaski makes a leap of faith, believing the children are free of the disease, but Picard doesn't want to put his ship at risk, so Pulaski ends up examining the child on a shuttle. Well, she contracts the disease, and it has the effect of making her look more and more like former first lady Barbara Bush. It's up to the crew of the Enterprise to find a cure for this dreaded Barbara Bush disease. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 104: Silicon Avatar (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Commander Riker and Data are on the planet Melona IV overseeing construction of a new colony. Riker is also starting up an affair with one of the colonists and they seem happy together, which of course means she's doomed. Her destruction comes courtesy of the Crystalline entity, previously seen in the episode "Datalore" from season 1. The entity mines the entire planet for its energy, absorbing everything. All but two of the colonists are saved (Riker's girlfriend is killed when she stops to help another), thanks to a protective cave. Back on the Enterprise, the crew decides to pursue and study the entity, along with the help of xenologist Kyla Marr, who has devoted her life to studying it ever since it killed her son on Omicron Theta. She has no trust for Data because she knows that Data's "brother" Lore was responsible for luring the entity to Omicron Theta, but it's only with Data's help that she learns the secret to communicating with and possibly destroying the alien creature. Because the entity killed her son, she wants to destroy it before it kills again, and Riker agrees, but Picard would rather try to establish communications with it. Though the character of Marr is often annoying, and her communication with her son through Data's access to the Omicron Theta journal entries is a bit much, all is forgiven with an ending that is as brilliant as it is bittersweet. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 23: Symbiosis (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: The Prime Directive is put to the test in this interplanetary examination of the war on drugs. While studying an irregular star, the Enterprise answers a distress signal from a ship that is being pulled into a planet's gravity. When contacted, the captain of the ship comes across as fatalistic and possibly drunk. When told to put his crew in the transporter, he ships over his cargo instead, forcing the Enterprise to scramble to try and save the crew. The cargo is Felicium, a hyper-refined drug needed by the Ornarans to fight a plague on their planet. Unfortunately, the payment for the drug goes down with the ship. The emissaries from the other planet, the one that produces the drug, don't want to let go of the cargo without payment because production of Felicium is their planet's only industry. When Dr. Crusher discovers that the drug is a narcotic and not a cure, Picard has a moral decision to make that will affect both planets. Meanwhile, Wesley has a lot to learn about the history of drug addiction in various cultures. Though a little preachy, the restrictions of the Prime Directive ultimately make this episode interesting. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 24: We'll Always Have Paris (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: The crew's much-needed shore leave has to be postponed when they run across anomalies in the space-time continuum. Hiccups in time are causing occasional moments of déjà vu. The distress signal from Dr. Paul Manheim (Rod Loomis), a scientist who's been working on experiments in nonlinear time, puts Picard into a bit of an emotional funk. You see, 22 years prior, Picard was supposed to meet a woman in a café in Paris--a woman whom he loved and who loved him. He stood her up for fear of being tied down by a relationship, choosing instead his Starfleet career. Needless to say, the old flame (Michelle Phillips) ended up marrying Manheim, and now it's up to Picard and the crew of the Enterprise to save them both. "We'll Always Have Paris" is an engaging examination of the personal sacrifices made by a workaholic, played against the backdrop of a smart, action-packed story. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 25: Conspiracy (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: When Picard receives a secret transmission from an old friend, Starfleet Captain Walker Keel (Jonathan Farwell), he agrees to attend a secret meeting on an uninhabited planet, even though it means breaking several Starfleet regulations and jeopardizing his career. Keel and a couple of other highly respected captains have gathered because Keel has begun to notice some bizarre orders emanating from Starfleet and suspects a growing conspiracy. Back on the Enterprise, Picard is skeptical, but Data helps confirm some of the strange orders. Picard sets up a meeting with Admiral Quinn (Ward Costello) to check it out. Admiral Quinn had previously boarded the Enterprise in episode 19 ("Coming of Age") in order to investigate the competency of Picard in the face of an unstated conspiracy, but now he seems like a different man. Though the writing is a bit forced, it's nice to see the show working on long-form, continuing story lines. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 26: The Neutral Zone (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: The first season comes to a close with Captain Picard being called to an emergency conference on Starbase 718. While waiting for him to return to the ship, Data and Worf investigate the wreckage of an old space capsule they find, one that was launched from Earth in the late 20th century. On board the capsule are three humans in suspended animation: a businessman, an artist, and a housewife. Each were frozen at the moment they died from fatal diseases, hoping that sometime in the future they could be thawed out and cured. Meanwhile, Picard brings the Enterprise into the neutral zone to investigate the destruction of a few remote outposts. Rumor has it, after 50 years of quiet, the Romulans have returned to annoy and fight against the Federation. The gravity of the situation is lost on the unfrozen humans, particularly the blowhard businessman who is itching to find out how his stocks are doing after more than 300 years. The comic aspects are rather broad, but the reintroduction of the Romulans is well played. The question of the destroyed outposts isn't resolved until season 2 (hint: it's one of the series' favorite villains), but the most interesting revelation is that TV on Earth only lasts until 2040. Watch this episode now, before it's too late! --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 106: The Game (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Long before she was a glamorous movie star, before even her breakthrough performance in Ruby in Paradise, Ashley Judd was a good lookin' television actress who twice played Ensign Robin Lefler, an engineering mission specialist, on Star Trek: The Next Generation. In "The Game," she teams up with visiting Starfleet cadet Wesley Crusher to save the Enterprise and flirt a little. The ship's problems start when Commander Riker returns from Risa with a game he was given by some alien prostitute. Immediately addictive, the game hooks into the mind and stimulates the pleasure centers. Everybody who plays it wants to share it with the poor, unfortunate souls who haven't yet tried it. Not only does the spread of the game interfere with their mission to chart the Phoenix cluster, it turns out to be a form of mind control from an alien race. Soon enough, the whole ship is hooked and following alien orders. Everyone, that is, except Wesley and Robin, who were too busy enjoying the endorphin rush of their first date to play it. Soon enough they suspect the worst and need to act. As a tribute to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this is an entertaining episode (though the game itself is cheesy to look at), with the climax handled in a particularly exciting way. After the excitement, Wesley and Robin share a closed-mouth kiss and promise to see each other again once he goes back to Starfleet Academy, where he'll likely learn that long-distance relationships don't work. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 22: Skin of Evil (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: A substandard Trek adventure that attains a bit of notoriety as the final episode of Denise Crosby's Tasha Yar--at least until her cleverly conceived return in the third season's "Yesterday's Enterprise." When a shuttle crash strands Counselor Troi and a (barely glimpsed) crewman on a barren planet, the away team's efforts to rescue her are frustrated by a black, viscous pool that moves to block their path. The oily goop soon identifies itself as Armus, not an alien being per se, but rather the cast-off remnants of an ancient race that had learned how to make manifest the cruel, destructive sides of their own nature and abandoned this physical embodiment of evil as a hindrance to their evolution. Armus immediately proves his own motiveless malignancy by killing Tasha with wonton dispatch. But murder proves insufficient to satisfy his cravings, and he goes on to torment and torture the remainder of the landing team through such schoolyard stratagems as playing keep away with Geordi's visor and forcing Data to hold his phaser on his comrades. A pretty regrettable episode overall, with laughable dialogue and special effects (the evil oil slick may be the lamest-looking villain in all of Star Trek), but in hindsight the brutal offhandedness of Tasha's death, done without preamble or any great effort on Armus's part, was the first healthy sign that TNG would outgrow the self-congratulatory PC smugness of its first few seasons. --Bruce Reid

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 15: Angel One (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: The Federation freighter Odin has been disabled by an asteroid. There are no signs of life on the ship, but three escape pods are missing, so the crew of the Enterprise take a trip to the nearest planet, Angel One, to see if they can locate any survivors. The civilization on Angel One is "similar to mid-20th-century Earth," except the gender roles are switched. Women are the hunters and natural leaders, while the men are treated as pretty ornaments and playthings. You can imagine how well that plays with Riker. But it's Riker who, in pure Shatner mode, nearly gets lucky with the leader of Angel One, Mistress Beata (Karen Montgomery). Well, it turns out the three survivors are fugitives from justice because they've been inspiring the men on the planet to campaign for equal rights, and the women just don't like that. Meanwhile, the Enterprise has been incapacitated by a mysterious virus. The obvious politics of this episode are nicely balanced by the entertainingly "girlish" costumes worn by the men on the planet. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 16: 11001001 (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: The holodeck needs a bit of maintenance, so the Enterprise checks in to Starbase 74 to allow some Bynars (beings who can speak in binary code and who sound like fax machines) to update the programming. While Riker doesn't trust the Bynars, he forgets all of his complaints when he tries out the holodeck. Setting himself up as a trombone player in a 1958 Bourbon Street bar, he meets up with a sultry brunette. "What's a knockout like you doing in a computer-generated gin joint like this?" is his none-too-subtle pickup line. Her reactions turn out to be more complex and more "human" than the program ever exhibited before, and when Picard walks in on the couple he is equally charmed. While they're lost in the holodeck program, the Enterprise starts to self-destruct. This forces an evacuation of everybody (except Riker and Picard) and an eventual hijacking of the ship. The reasons behind the events are very smart, making this a nicely thought-out episode, despite little things like Data learning to paint and Riker's masturbatory fantasy. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 17: Home Soil (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: On the lifeless desert planet of Velara III, a small group of scientists are hard at work terraforming the planet. When a routine check-in by the Enterprise leads to a testy dismissal from the head engineer, as well as bad vibes for Counselor Troi, the away team goes to investigate. Apologies are quickly made by the newly conciliatory terraformers, who explain that their manners tend to fade over the decades of isolation required to bring life to a dead world. (So what exactly happened to Star Trek II's Genesis Project?) But during the brief tour, one scientist is killed by an apparently malfunctioning laser, and suspicions are raised again. Data and Geordi investigate, and discover beyond question that an intelligent force in fact controlled the deadly beam. The three remaining scientists are brought up to the ship for questioning; also beamed aboard is a small crystal whose arrhythmic, "musical" light pulsations have intrigued Data. Despite some insistence from the ship's computer that, lacking organic structure, the crystal simply can't be life (why exactly aren't Starfleet medical programs informed of the silicon-based Horta encountered by the old Enterprise crew?), alive is exactly the right word. Alive, growing, and angry at the attempted extermination of its species by the terraformers. Not to mention able to control the Enterprise's computers, thus putting the entire crew at risk. Though the rapidly multiplying creature, eventually dubbed the microbrain, is one of the show's all-time cheapest aliens--basically some glowing penlights placed under a bell jar--the story is a fairly interesting rehash of some classic Trek themes. Plus, any episode that introduces the catchy phrase "ugly bags of mostly water," the microbrain's description of humans, is an instant classic. --Bruce Reid

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 18: When The Bough Breaks (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Following faint energy signals like a trail of bread crumbs, the Enterprise ends up in the Epsilon Minos system. Riker is excited because this is the area where the mythical world of Aldea is located, an advanced civilization rumored to be centuries old, peaceful, self-contained, and technically sophisticated, where the inhabitants devote themselves to art. What luck, then, that they end up parked just outside of the orbit of this legendary planet and lines of communication open up. Good luck turns to bad when the Aldeans kidnap a bunch of children from the Enterprise and try to pay off the parents by giving them advanced technology. Turns out the Aldeans are impotent and dying off, and need a new generation of children to help repopulate the planet. They try to be good surrogate parents, opening up the kids to their artistic potential, but that doesn't placate the birth parents. "When the Bough Breaks" capitalizes on a natural mistrust of artist colonies, combined with a fear of forced adoption. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 177: All Good Things...The Final Episode ('94-'95) (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: This two-hour finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation is a very satisfying piece that leads the seven-year-old television series back to its beginnings in the original TNG pilot. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart), whipping through time uncontrollably, simultaneously finds himself back at the start of his tenure on board the Enterprise while also on the ship's deck in the present--at the same time he tried somewhat feebly to forestall a disaster in the distant future. As fans might expect, a certain imp named Q seems to be behind the mystery...but not necessarily for bad reasons. A wonderful wrap-up to seven years of TV legend, All Good Things deserves to be a TV classic. --Tom Keogh

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 156: Gambit, Part I (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: "Gambit" opens with a shocker: the crew searches for a missing Captain Picard in a seedy bar, only to be told by a Yridian eyewitness that he's been vaporized in a fight. Riker vows to track down Picard's killers, and we're off! Soon Riker is also whisked away, captured by the same band of mercenaries that offed the captain. As the crew of the Enterprise scramble to track down their leader, Riker discovers that Picard is also aboard the raiding ship, calling himself Galen and looking distinctly mean. This is a fun episode of shifting loyalties and some deliberate macho posing from both Picard and Riker, as the two feign an adversarial relationship to confuse their captors. The story line also poses interesting dilemmas as Picard and Riker try to warn the Enterprise without blowing their respective covers. Keep an eye out for The Cosby Show's Sabrina Le Beauf as the bizarrely calm Ensign Giusti. --Ali Davis

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 157: Gambit, Part 2 (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: This is a satisfying conclusion to part 1. Riker and Picard are aboard a mercenary vessel, forced to fire at their own beloved Enterprise to keep the sadistic Baran from killing them. The episode is full of twists and ruses as Riker and Picard try to hide their Starfleet loyalties while dealing with the shifting alliances of the mercenary ship's crew. Back on the Enterprise, Data and Worf discover a new tension in their relationship as Worf grows increasingly frustrated with Data's slow and methodical command decisions. Richard Lynch enjoyably hams it up as Baran, but it's Robin Curtis (best known to fans as Lieutenant Saavik from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock), playing a badass Vulcan named Tallera, who steals the show. --Ali Davis

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 158: Phantasms (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: In his effort to experience what it's like to be human, Data has installed a program to simulate dreams, but the program seems to have gone on the fritz. He keeps having nightmares and oversleeping. In his dreams, there's a hole in one of the ship's walls that early 20th-century miners are maliciously opening with their pickaxes, followed by a high-pitched whine. They notice Data and begin to disassemble him. In later dreams he sees Worf eating a piece of cellular peptide cake (with mint frosting), Dr. Crusher drinking from a straw coming out of Commander Riker's head, and himself being forced to cut a piece of cake made out of Counselor Troi, who screams when the knife enters her frosted shoulder. To solve this dilemma, he goes to the holodeck to talk to Sigmund Freud. Over in "reality," Geordi is having trouble bringing the new warp core online, while Captain Picard is secretly thankful that their troubles might make him miss a boring admiral's banquet. In this episode directed by Patrick Stewart, the holodeck Freud is more of a caricature than anything else, and begs the question of whether or not dream theory has advanced at all since the 20th century. The story pays off, however, when Data decodes the dream and discovers a deadly menace onboard that he was only subliminally aware of. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 159: Dark Page (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Deanna Troi's mother Lwaxana (Majel Barrett) returns to the Enterprise bringing more mother-daughter baggage. This time she is the sole translator for the Cairn, a species who developed with no concept of spoken language, but who need to learn to speak now that they're joining the Federation. Established right away as an annoying blabbermouth, Lwaxana immediately tries to marry off her unwed daughter to the eligible Cairn widower Maques (Norman Large). When Lwaxana falls into a coma after too much telepathic contact with the Cairn, it's up to Deanna to probe her mind (with the help of Maques). Deanna discovers her mom has suppressed a dark secret for more than 30 years, a secret that must be exposed and dealt with before the episode can come to its inevitable conclusion. The most interesting thing about the episode is the casting of Hedril, the daughter of Maques. Yes, that's Kirsten Dunst when she was about 10 years old! Not a great episode, but an interesting footnote to the career of Dunst. --Andy Spletzer

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 161: Force of Nature (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: In an attempt to track down a lost medical transport, the Enterprise enters the lone safe corridor in an area of space known to be hazardous to warp-driven vessels. They soon encounter two aliens who demand the cessation of all warp travel in the area, claiming it will damage their planet and the space around it. This episode focuses largely on La Forge: ever the technology lover, he's happily engaged in a friendly competition with the chief engineer of another ship to see who can get the most efficient power conversion levels. The aliens' demands for an immediate halt of all warp transport present a sudden threat to everything that La Forge's heart holds dear. The seriousness of the episode is nicely offset with a silly subplot about Data's attempts to train his cat, Spot. Geordi's speculation that Spot is a creature that by nature cannot be trained is a subtle comment on La Forge's own refusal to believe the aliens' research. --Ali Davis