@Todd — yeah, that never occurred to me, either. That does change the way that ending reads.

I thought the same thing as Sajanas. It really seemed like Picard's first thought is "what Data says!" Sort of a slap in the face to Riker, really. I'll bet he brings it up later when he turns out to be right.

I guess I'll buy Spicoli's explanation, since I've always needed one. I saw this as the main flaw in a terrifically fun episode, because the whole thing never made a lot of sense to me. Why would an *explosion* trigger this particular weirdly specific effect? It just does, because Braga said so. I can live with that,…

I agree that Picard's tone is weirdly off in that scene. I guess he's giddy about not being dead, and all, but it's almost played as a punchline. Which is not how the audience is feeling at that moment.

Oh no. Oh no. Can't take it. And like Zack said, we were doing so well for a moment. And "The First Duty" is pretty fine, definitely top-tier. But "Cost of Living…" Man. I'm just going to commit, and say Worst Episode Ever. "Sub Rosa" at least has a fair amount of unintentional hilarity, and a creepy dead grandma.

Oh, Robin Leffler. I've said it before, but there's no way Wesley freakin' Crusher hit that.

@eclectic — Yes. Although again, DS9 managed some decent ground combat scenes. But maybe I'm grading on a curve because I really love those episodes ("Rocks and Shoals," "Nor the Battle to the Strong," "The Siege of AR-558"). Much more than I like the "space battle" ones.

I like Pixel Mr. Homn. Because that dude rules.

Yeah. The station that showed TNG in my town was the Fox affiliate — but Fox wasn't FOX yet. The Simpsons was still a year or two away. They were independent most of the time.

Speaking as a key part of that Youthful Target Audience at the time (I was thirteen when TNG premiered), I can tell you that I was definitely NOT going on dates on Saturday night. Sigh.

"All Along the Watchtower." Man. The most batshit insane TV moment I've ever seen. I was really impressed at the sheer balls of it, actually. But the show was effectively over at that point. Nowhere else to go.

Man, I wanted Gaeta to be a Cylon so bad. He deserved it; the poor guy never got to do anything. Except his half-assed assassination attempt.

Yeah, that was in "Pen Pals," right? I actually thought it was a decent callback, besides serving the plot. "Yeah, we got lucky that one time. It's not gonna work again."

"That's every sci-fi space battle, period."

Space Obama gives a damned good speech, though. And I would imagine Picard also has a sweet jumpshot.

But I'd imagine that "tools for operating on mutant women" would come in handy on a starship.

The "contractions" thing is only in effect when it's needed for a plot point. I.e., when we need to establish that Data is possessed, a hologram, or Lore.

@ Bad Horse — I'll meet you halfway. The "Sacrifice of Angels" battle is pretty epic, and some of the others are, too. But they have the same silly problems as every Trek battle — a bunch of ships in tight formation shooting at each other from apparently fifty feet apart.

That must've been it. Somebody check. I'm busy drinking.

eclectic — True enough. DS9 kept us hoping, but they never had the budget or the chops for it. That show did astonishingly good war stories, but not battles per se.