Re:Engage TNG

Data as Frankenstein's Monster in renaissance Italy planet world and Counselor Troi becoming a Commander. This episode has everything: stew, Ronnie James Edwards, hot metal, and that guy! You know, from that thing! You know him! He was in that show, remember? Anyway, Data's marooned and amnesia-ed but bonds with a father and daughter before relearning science right before our very eyes. Riker give...

Smash bang! Here we get a look at the ensigns looking to move up the ranks of Starship Enterprise. That's right - it all starts here with amazing characters, some of which we've seen before like Sito Jaxa and Alyssa Ogawa, as well as new characters Sam Lavelle, Ben the bartender, and the vulcan Taurik. Jaxa and Lavelle are both up for a promotion to Ops, and while Riker has it out for Lavelle, Wor...

What do you say about a colony on an alien world that tries to be Scotland but is actually just a setting for misogynistic gaslighting, or, perhaps, ghost-lighting? I don't know. We're workshopping that one. Just like the writers were with this script. Hey-o! Beverly Crusher's grandmother passes away and at the funeral is a fetching lad. That lad starts to seduce Beverly through the power of journ...

Only Worf would have ANOTHER brother played by none other than Mr. Capulet himself, Paul Sorvino. It's great to see Michael Dorn on his back feet, and, without his prosthetics, he acts even harder. There's a planet being "observed" by Starfleet with a pre-technology culture that's been full-on infiltrated by the un-Prime Directive respecting adopted brother of Worf. The planet is about to die, and...

Only so much time before we encountered John Locke, the Stepfather of the Star Trek universe. Riker meets his Captain from another Ship - the USS Pegasus - which was deemed lost 12 years ago. Well, it's back, and the Romulans want it. That's when we discover there's a lot more in Riker's past that made him the No. 1 he is today, including new phaser settings (mutiny!). A wonderfully acted and dire...

Let's multiverse around, shall we? Worf wins a tai-chi, er, I mean, bat'leth tourney where he took the Champion rank and is flying home in a shuttlecraft. Riker is brusque with him and swears there's nothing untoward happening, but then BANG ZOOM - Worf's a jolly good fellow in sung in Klingon by Troi. The cake is a lie, as is Picard's presence and the fact that Worf actually took 7th place in the...

It's a Data family episode. So many Sunghs to go around, but this time we re:engage with Data's childhood by way of that awkward naked toddler stage. But is this woman from the past telling the truth? Or is she fully functional in her grifter pseudo-science? We'll never know. Until we do. In the best doubling Brent Spiner can achieve. Again. Before. The first time. I'm confused. Don't watch Picard...

It's a bummer, man, all this warping and what it's doing to the space-time continuum. But of course let's not talk about it too much because we've got some extremely important cat content to handle first. Geordi ain't a cat person, and Data can't train the cat very well by asking Spot to get down. There's a Ferengi who may have disabled a Federation ship, but actually it's two terrorist siblings d...

Picard and Beverly sitting in a tree, not really K. I. S. S. I. N. G. There's a planet of spies trying to join the Federation, one side is on board, the other is super xenophobic. Picard and Beverly get snatched from the transporter room after a Vulcan breakfast. After being attached - get it, that's the title! - via a psychic implant, they start to talk about their feelings long repressed. Includ...

Deanna had a whole bunch of history they all waited 7 years in to reveal, didn't they? Lwaxana Troi goes to a planet to interview a vampire, but she doesn't want to talk about it, Little One. There is a lot to unpack, and unpack we do! Because the little girl that looks a heckuva lot like Marie Antoinette, Lwaxana is going a little bit out of control. At first we think it's about one thing, but it...

There's a lot to love when you've got steampunk dreamscape all up in your sci-fi! This is gonna be a lot of fun, said Star Trek Acid Party. Yes, yes it is. Data has dreams that he tries to unlock through the power of Sigmund Freud from Bill & Ted's and cakes made of Tom Petty videos. Delicious! Please send us any thoughts on the series to LetsReEngage@gmail.com or on Bluesky, Greg's social med...

It continues! Apologies in advance for your eardrums, Jimmie's siren call to start this one gets us all fired up. James Worthy boards the Enterprise and starts eating the goddamned scenery. Baran, the space pirate villain, gets a taste of it's own medicine. Vulcan Intelligence officers try to take over an ancient super-weapon. But eventually, love conquers all. At least until Riker gets thrown in...

The Enterprise crew is in their civvies, investigating the disappearance of the Captain. But he's not just missing, he dead! Riker is acting captain and acting like a dick with Troi telling him what's what. Then they go to a phaser shootout on a planet and Riker gets abducted. Data is in charge once again, but that's only so we can meet a charming group of space pirates that use torture to keep ev...

We interfaced while discussing this interface-based episode! Geordi plugs into a probe-type thing because of his visor implants but his mom is there to snap him out of it, Cher-style. Actually, she's just an image in his head cause the ship she'd been captaining went missing. But they did save some aliens, so there's that! Please send us any thoughts on the series to LetsReEngage@gmail.com or on B...

Jean-Luc Picard gets to the heart of the matter with a little lady. That is, of course, because he crash lands on a planet in which said little lady is the only survivor. Maybe? It's hard to tell honestly. On the Enterprise, Worf and Troi wear dress Federation uniforms to welcome two very different aliens who we eventually are trying to learn how human emotions work. In order to do that, they have...

Well, well, well. It's been a long time. Almost too long. What do you remember? Well, Data, Picard and the bunch are with the Borg being led by ... you know who. Mr. Saturday Night Codpiece himself, Lore. He's pit Data against his old buddies after he got a hit of that sweet, sweet emotion juice. There is body horror and evil acting and terrifying conversations with Data. The cavalry comes to resc...

Season's ending, crew, time to bring in the big guns. We got Lore, the Borg, a lot of Hugh mentions, a Federation Admiral, and a slew of dead red shirts. Or Yellow. You get the idea. They might as well have had a saucer separation. Why didn't they? Blew all the budget on Einstein's facial prosthesis? Data is feeling himself. He fights the borg and gets super mad, going so far as to strangle one of...

TimEscape. Tim's Cape. It's all about getting high on time. Picard draws a smiley face on an exploding reactor blast, proving that graffiti is the same in the 24th century. Troi, Laforge, Picard and Data attend the most boring /slash/ misogynistic science conference on the fanciest shuttlecraft in the fleet. But everybody keeps kitting the pause /slash/ fast-forward button. The fruit got real mold...

Two Rikers! Holy continuity breakdown! This one is directed by Levar Burton, and doesn't focus so much on the science fiction of meeting your double. Instead, we get a much greater understanding of Troi and Riker's romance before the show even started. It's bold. We get tai-chi over leotard-stretching ladies and cute-sey scavenger hunt ploys from a young Thomas. No discussion of the effects of bei...

Kahless the great returns after Worf burns a fat one on the Enterprise and gets dressed down /slash/ given a vacation from Picard. Then we talk about religion and governance without really getting at the moral quandary of cloning and free will. Worf confronts the Klingon pharisees, then convinces Gowron to bends the knee. No, it doesn't make sense any more than religion does, but we are made to as...

Sometimes an inner monologue is all you need to discover who the real killer has been all along. Guinan talks to Dr. Crusher about tennis elbow, but Beverly isn't the doctor on this ship anymore. Then through a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards, she uncovers the killer of a Ferengi scientist for which she was busy getting recognition among a group comprised of a Vulcan, Klingon and Takaran s...

It's a meta-existential threat episode! Riker is an actor in a play written by Beverly Crusher, or is that Jonathan Frakes? Or is it the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction? This episode is written in such a delicious way, blending exposition and strange character behavior in a perception-annihilating frame of mind. I am shattered, like the fabric of reality poor Riker is experiencing, each tim...

I love doing musical intros! After his old archeology teacher shows up to guilt trip him on a goose chase, Picard fondles some figurines before his teacher is killed. He leaves behind a trail, and Picard ignores protocol to make the DNA tell him and Crusher where to go next. Cardassians show up, then Klingons and Romulans, yet the Captain finds a way to put the petal to the warp metal and piece to...

The Fish and the Rocks! A quiet episode, until it's not. Picard meets a pianist, and she opens up his musician side as well as his heart. Too bad she is under his direct command. She plays the keys and he plays the flute in the sexiest part of the starship, the Jeffries Tubes! There are dolphins, there are non-stop HR violations, there is exquisite chest hair. This is a fantastic episode and we ho...

"The Enterprise is mine!" says Picard when he goes back for his saddle(!) No one grows in this one, including our panel, but that's just perfect for a mélange of 80s action movie moments. Due for a scan for waste particles associated with the warp engines, the Enterprise bridge crew must go to a reception held by Hutch, er, Commander Calvin Hutchinson. Data wants to emulate the art of small talk,...