agreed on both counts, Richelieu. I think part of the reason this episode generates cynicism is because it varies in tone so much.

"Surely the episode is best understood as competently-executed essentially fan-wank. It's an effort to explain "in-universe" why all the aliens are conveniently bipedal umanoids capable of being played by real actors in fancy makeup."

agreed sajanas. Romulans can't be called space Romans unless the have all these opium orgies that we never seen.

I was a little freaked out when i saw it (age 11) because it was 'darker' than the rest of the series.

"Exogenesis" is the slightly less controversial scientific theory dealing with the same idea.

I want to give the writers a little credit insofar as they were building on an actual scientific theory - panspermia - that has been in and out of vogue over the last 50 years and drawn support from some well-known biologists.

I think it was a $/availability issue. I seem to remember her interviewing and saying how bummed she was she couldn't play the role in those Voyager eps…and clearly she returned to it for the finale.

i agree. could it be that Seth McFarlane is our last, best hope to usher in a new age of reason? Yikes.

http://www.youtube.com/watc…

Well that too, but really I'm talking more about the emotional or philosophical impact. The best episodes of TNG (Drumhead, Inner Light, Darmok, etc) had that. Even BBoW, which is certainly an actioner, had deeper existential (i.e. will we continue to exist?) overtones.

One could argue that the picard-beverly thing in "attached" was planted and developed over time.

The Bev Crusher production of Equus.

In re: "The Gollywibble": Is that a real thing or just a made up word? Either way, brilliant!

Epon, i really enjoyed that. Thanks.

As always, I like the way Richelieu thinks. I'm going to have to go study some stats now, but my general sense (and my own personal experience) is that Trek became tired, lazy and repetitive in its later efforts (Voy, Insurrection, Nemesis) so fans stopped watching. I would argue the shows and the fans abandoned…

I don't know. There's just not that much gravitas/heft/resonance to it. More than anything, I think that is what makes for an "A" episode of TNG.

I have a personalized Riker mug that my wife got me for my birthday. Every morning I get to have coffee with my favorite science fiction lush.

love it. kinda reminiscent of that episode where he says the dress uniforms look like dresses. But for moments like these, it'd be easy to make the argument that these guys run too serious an office.

I can't order that you die!
This trope comes up fairly often in trek, but it always rings hollow to me because it never actually happens. Rather than someone dying as a result of orders, they're always saved by modulating the shield nutation or some such. Sure, red shirts die, and sure, it happens in holodeck…

I guess this is a debate for the ds9 reviews, but to what extent IS quark villainous?