Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews GG

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.
I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Aquiel” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode, I give it two stars out of five.

“Face of the Enemy” See this for a plot summary.

Although I can’t figure out how undemocratic the Romulan Star Empire is, the security forces are feared by (probably) most of the citizenry and that makes it at least fairly undemocratic. With that in mind, I like the episodes about the dissidents in the RSE. The struggle for freedom and/or greater democracy is inspiring. That’s partly why I like this episode.

I give it four stars out of five.

UPDATE 1/12/12 I should have added this a long time ago, but I DO find the Arab Spring inspirational and I do support it.

“Tapestry” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode, although Picard does sound like an agnostic rather than an atheist (I like to see some of that, not much but some, in ST because ST generally ignores Old Earth religions as if they're inconsistent with the values of the Federation)

“Birthright” Parts 1 and 2 See this and this for a plot summary.

For the most part a non-political two-parter. At one point Worf says something which goes beyond his usual comments about Romulans and is basically bigotry. He criticizes marriages between Romulans and Klingons. He later changes his mind about that.

I give it two stars out of five.


“Starship Mine” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.

“Lessons” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.

“The Chase” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it two stars out of five.