VOY - Scorpion part I

Scorpion part I deals with an interesting concept. Making a deal with star trek’s most infamous enemy, in lieu of another race that may be even more powerful and malevolent then the Borg. Chakotay’s speech about the possible risks of cutting a deal with the Borg, is very eloquent in making the point that , even though Voyager may have the information reqarding species 8472, that the Borg require, they may still try to assimilate Voyager simply because it is there nature to do so. However Janeway also makes an equally good point that they won’t sign away their only chance for winning the conflict against species 8472, despite their nature. It is a choice between two bad choices; either turns around and gives up hope of getting home, or enters a risky alliance with the Borg. This choice is basically what this episode is about. Captain Janeway learning of species 8472, and then making the decision to enter into an alliance with them. While there are a lot of embellishments in the episode, such a large quantys of good special effects, the episode basically centers on Captain Janeway’s decision to make a deal with the Borg collective, and in doing so does a very good job of setting up the end of part I for the resolution in Part II

TNG - Q Who

This is, of course the episode in which the Borg is first seen. Making for a very good episode. In Q who the Borg, however, are described by Q as being only interested in technology, instead of being interested in technology , and assimilation footer as they are in later episodes. This minor discrepancy can by explained by saying; simply that Q was not giving the enterprise crew a full description of Borg’s motives. Another point of interest in this episode is the fact that Guinin seems to have the ability to defend her self against the powers of the Q, when she is deffinetly not a Q herself. Giving the animosity that exists between her and Q it seems likely that at some point in the past Q was punished by the Continuum for harassing her, at which point they also taught guinin to defend herself against any further harassment by Q. other than these two discrepancies, Q who is a riveting episode, this is because it combines the two (seemingly)unbeatable enemies of Star Trek making for very good television as the Picard senior staff try to figure a way out of their situation, and are ultimately unsuccessful. The Enterprise’s inability to defeat the Borg, forces Picard to do something that he is very unaccustomed to doing, asking for help. Whole Q who may not be the best Borg episode ever made, it is still a throualy enjoyable, riveting episode, that combines two of the best enemies that have ever been seen in the history of Star Trek.

DS9 - Babel

In this episode, almost all of the station’s population is put out of commission, and those who are left, in fish-out-of-water situations. Quark and Odo end up crewing ops together, providing them with many good opportunities to insult each other. Another positive aspect of this episode is Major Kira; her sarcastic attitude is both appropriate for her character, and somewhat comical. In this episode, Doctor Bashir seems to have finally gained a level of maturity, a distant improvement from the stumbling puppy behavior in the previous episodes. The graphic of the euphasia virus is disappointing. It actually makes no sense as there are miniaturized versions of it floating in the background, and miniatures would serve no purpose except to clutter up the display.

TOS - The Trouble With Tribbles

The Trouble with Tribbles is definitely the most famous episode of The Original Series, and with good reason. While many other episodes of Trek are filled with action, drama, or are just exceedingly comical, The Trouble with Tribbles has all of those aspects at their best rolled into one episode. It expertly combines comedy with drama, without making the episode seem silly or stupid. Most all of the jokes are funny and the action scenes do not seem out of place. Besides the Tribbles, one of this episode's greatest assets is Mr. Barris; his incessant bitching provides Kirk with a very easy target for his rather acerbic sense of humor. Many classic Star Trek moments are included within this episode. The most prominent of which is Scotty’s explaining to Kirk why he started a fight with the Klingons, Kirk’s reaction to his story, and Scotty’s final indignant explanation for hitting the Klingon: “He called the Enterprise a garbage scow!” It’s a priceless moment of Trek history. Another classic moment of Trek in this episode is when, after opening the storage bay containing the Quadrotriticale, Kirk emerges from a heaping pile of Tribbles and proceeds to argue with Mr. Barris. Kirk’s clear annoyance with the Klingons, Barris and the Tribbles falling on this head, generates another memorable Trek line “… and as Captain I want two things done. First, Find Cyrano Jones, and Second… Close that door!” The Trouble with Tribbles definitely has almost all of the aspects of Trek done to perfection. This is probably the reason that it is widely regarded as the most famous episode of Star Trek and why it is one of the best episodes of the original series.

VOY - Rise

This is, literally, an elevator episode, and a very good one at that. It is also one of the few episodes in which Neelix does not drive the viewer up the wall. The story of the episode is very interesting, as there are many things going on. While Voyager tries in vain to deflect asteroids from hitting the planet, Neelix and Tuvok are down on a devastated region of the planet. They have to get back up to the ship, flush out a traitor in the group they are traveling with and do these things without getting into a fight themselves. Furthermore, all of the many aspects of this episode’s plot line are well done, making Rise One of the better episodes of Voyager’s third season

ENT - The Communicator

Malcolm loses his communicator. This is the entire plot line of this episode. The Communicator is an incredibly boring, lame episode, definitely among the worst episodes of Enterprise. The dialogue at the beginning of this episode more closely resembles a conversation that tourists would have after a day of sightseeing in Europe than something in Star Trek. And then Reed realizes that he lost his communicator. And instead of doing the smart thing, cutting his losses and just leaving it, as Kirk did after McCoy left his communicator on Iocia, Archer goes back down to the planet and gets into more trouble. Providing copious opportunities for what must be some of the lamest discussions about not interfering with pre-warp civilizations in all of the Star Trek cannon. The only part of the show that is halfway decent is the rest of the crew’s attempt to rescue Reed and Archer from their escapade. And even that part is mediocre.

Star Trek Discontinunity - The TOS Engine room

In Star Trek The Original Series, the positioning of the warp core is some what ambiguous. In the First Season episode The Alternative Factor, Engineering is depicted as a small room. However in later episodes, Main Engineering is a cavernous room. This is easily explainable. The Alternative Factor engineering could have merely been a room situated under the dilithium crystal apparatus in the center of the larger engineering that provided another access point for the dilithium crystals. There is also another problem with the engineering sets on TOS Enterprise. In the larger engineering set the dilithium crystal chamber is apparently located on the floor in the middle of the room, leading us to believe that the actual warp core runs horizontally under main Engineering, However there is a large apparatus in the far wall that is obviously supposed to be the warp core. Once again there is a relatively simple explanation for this. The warp core actually did run horizontally under main engineering. The large apparatus inset into the far wall is not the warp core but a mess of power transfer conduits. It is sometimes seen pulsating because the warp core is located directly below these conduits, and its pulsating can still be seen coming up the from the deck below. In the first Star Trek movie the Enterprise had a vertical warp core. This simply means that the Enterprise was refitted with a new type of core.