Synopsis: An arrogant engineer does some tests on the warp engines and seemingly sends the Enterprise hurtling across galaxies.  As it turns out, The Traveler does so after falling in love with Wesley.

Memory Alpha Summary:  No word on whether the Traveler fought with Ashley Judd

Review:  The erotic tension between our two stars in this episode is creepy.  Also, this episode plants the seed for everyone to hate Wesley, as The Traveler tells Picard he’s the most special, intelligent, wonderful boy in all the universes.  And Riker is a royal dick to him, thus requiring him later to validate Wesley’s awesomeness.

But there’s some wonderful imagery when they reach the end of the universe, and the visual hallucinations are effectively eerie.  Also, Stanley Kamel is pretty excellent as the engineer, actually showing signs of growth throughout the episode, unlike many mad scientists to come during the run of the series.

Synopsis:  Geordi and Ro learn that invisibility turns out not to be such a great trait to have.

Memory Alpha Summary:  Erased…from existence!

Review:  If you turn your brain off, Geordi and Ro’s predicament is quite fun.  After all, the whole “Are we dead?” thing Ro ponders is kind of lame.  Are they hungry?  Are their bladders full?  Also, why can they walk through walls, desks, and people, but their feet stay grounded to floors?  It makes very little sense, but the special effects are awesome.  The funeral preparations are funny.  The action between Ro and the Romulan is good television.

Synopsis: Data loses his head, but it’s all in the past.

Memory Alpha Summary:  Anybody hating on this review will be shot.

Review: I like almost any story about time travel, including ones with a causality loop.  The Terminator series relies on this as does this episode.  And it’s a fine story, with Data’s severed head making for a good teaser and Samuel Clemens making for an entertaining period character.  We finally learn the origins of Guinan and Picard’s relationship.

But for an end of the season cliffhanger, it’s a bit underwhelming.  Chain of Command would have worked perfectly here.  But Time’s Arrow did not have a very tense climax at the end of part one.  Other than wondering what will happen with Data’s severed head, it’s not much of a cliffhanger at all.

A few notes:

–Season five was a very heavy season for poker, and at least for its final appearance, there were actual real stakes involved.
–I loved the discussion at the beginning about Data’s friendships being likened to sensory input patterns.
–At the end, Worf tells Riker that it will take him one minute to power up the photon torpedoes.  Since when does it take Worf an entire minute?  The best answer is when the plot requires it to save Picard’s life.

At least we get a laugh when Clemens sees Worf and yells, “Werewolf!”  No word on whether or not Mark Twain is a villager.

Synopsis:  Geordi gets brainwashed, and nearly gets to unleash all of his pent up hormonal angst on his crew mates.

Memory Alpha Summary:  He must have had a lot of sand in his shoes.

Review:  A vehicle for Geordi while also acting as a bridge to the season finale, this episode works on multiple levels.  We learn that Geordi likes playing trivia games with the computer and chess tournaments on vacation.  The brainwashing he undergoes is fun, especially when he’s asked to kill Chief O’Brien.  I have two squabbles about the episode, though.  As usual, the bad guy is revealed to the audience long before we should know.  It’s unnecessary here and insulting to the audience.  Second, Geordi and Crusher have this intensely stupid conversation about his insomnia.  Crusher asks him if he has something on his mind, and he says, “No, I don’t think so.”  Well guys, how about that impending fall of the Klingon-Federation alliance and the Federation being sitting ducks for the Romulans?  Nah, that can’t be it.  Geordi’s probably just tossing and turning over Leah Brahms again.

I do like the final scene with Geordi in counseling with Troi.  It’s purposeful, poignant, and it shows a vulnerable side of Geordi that doesn’t involve attractive women.

The countdown will be taking a week off as I take off for Vegas.  May the force be with you…or something.

Synopsis:  An entire planet is destroyed, except for one house, which must mean I was playing SimCity again.

Memory Alpha Summary:  Get the bulldozer ready!

Review:  Another solid episode that showed that TNG was coming into its own.  The plot is unique, unpredictable, and quite touching at the end with Kevin Uxbridge’s (played wonderfully by John Anderson) stark admission of sin.  My only quibble is that two species make an appearance—both of extraordinary power—that have never been heard of and will never be heard from again.

Synopsis:  Worf shows his racism while Geordi can’t lie with sand in his shoes.

Memory Alpha Summary:  Seriously, Geordi gets almost perturbed

Review:  I’m baffled that in Roddenberry’s vision of the future, Worf (who was raised by humans) would want every Romulan to die just because one of them killed his parents.  It’s the same attitude (as we later find out) O’Brien holds for the Cardassians.  I do believe it’s realistic (in other words, I’m glad it played out this way in this episode), as I believe humans may only come together as one when we have aliens to fight against.  However, I doubt it will mean our hatred and fears will diminish much.

Back on the planet, I love the interactions between Geordi and Bochra.  Mr. La Forge shows that he can deftly negotiate with humanoids as well as hot holodeck babes.  It’s too bad that good deeds don’t seem to impress the Romulan government, but at least Geordi impressed Bochra.

Synopsis:  Picard runs into his future self and rips him a new one even though he’s catatonic and defenseless.  Oh, and Enterprise esplodes.

Memory Alpha Summary:  You built a time machine…out of a funnel cloud?

Review:  This is our first time loop entry in the series, and it’s a solid start, if a little plodding, what with the middle mostly consisting of endless talking.  Stewart really does a fantastic job at realistically portraying the emotions that would likely show themselves if someone bumped into their future self.  Also, the fatalistic nature of the time loop is foreboding and watching the crew gradually feel helpless is a nice touch.  The conclusion seems of a bit of a cop out, and never really explained, which hurts this episode a bit.

Synopsis:  An ancient Vulcan weapon is found that Gandhi would defeat handily.

Memory Alpha Summary:  Arr, pirates!

Review:  The series’ final two-parter is a little heavy on the camp and a little long on time, but it has many great individual scenes that make up for it.  Killing Picard in the teaser is sort of like doing the “Hey your shoelace is untied” joke, so I’m glad they didn’t wait for part two to show him not-surprisingly not-dead.  Anyway, the great scenes:

–Riker and Troi fighting in the ready room.

–Data (as acting captain) putting the smackdown on Worf.

–Data “playing along” with Riker when he’s on the pirate ship.

Unfortunately, most of the good stuff is in the first part.  And then we have Data acting unethically two episodes in a row, even if for logical reasons.

I didn’t mind the episode’s conclusion and the explanation behind the psionic resonator.  It was very Trekky: hammy, but in a good way.  It just doesn’t make for a powerful episode.

The denouement is hilarious, with Data escorting Riker to the brig.

Synopsis:  A planet that was basically a giant arms dealer but is devoid of life now is not quite done yet showing off its wares to Riker (and no, that’s not a euphemism).

Memory Alpha Summary:  The crew was relentlessly attacked by fleas during filming.  Oh, season one!

Review: Although a bit clumsy, I like this episode for its individual parts.  Riker’s conversation with his old buddy (who turns out to be a hologram) is great, as Riker inform him that his ship, The Lollipop, has just been commissioned.  “It’s a good ship!”  Ha!

Geordi takes over the ship after Picard joins the away team for no significant reason other than to get screen time (after all, he could have sent down some redshirts to risk their lives).  Watching Geordi command is always fun, as he’s always simultaneously excited and nervous (sadly, we’ll never see this again).  Troi also proves herself useful, not by reading emotions, but by counseling Geordi in his new position.  Imagine that!  It’s too bad Guinan will soon take over this role, rendering her completely useless.

However, there are two major plot holes in addition to other problems.  First, Riker and  Tasha refrain from jumping into the pit to meet with Picard and Crusher because it’s too far.  Data does so, because he’s an android.  If he’s that strong, why doesn’t Data offer to catch Riker and Tasha if they jump?  Second, when Picard succeeds at shutting down the defense system, why doesn’t the drone attacking the Enterprise also shut off?  There’s no explanation.

Also, Logan, our 20^th chief engineer so far, first yells at Geordi to abandon the away team in the name of safety.  Then, when Geordi decides to run away, Logan rails on him for abandoning the away team.  Make up your mind, you pompous prig.  Worse yet, Geordi makes an official log entry in which he laments his conflict with Logan off-handedly.  How inappropriate!  I do feel for Logan, though.  He outranks Geordi (as do many others on board) but Affirmative Action for blind people allows this contrivance, or something.

Despite these missteps, the two climaxes save this episode.  Vincent Schiavelli is perfect as the peddler.  I only wish Picard and Crusher could have had more screen time together in the pit.  It seems a writer left the show after this episode because he said Roddenberry discouraged character development.  Well, Roddenberry died and this scenario would be much better explored in Attached, during season seven.

Synopsis:  Troi becomes a Romulan, and unfortunately, doesn’t stay that way.

Memory Alpha Summary:  Meet the Tal Shiar, a more galactic KGB.

Review:  So during this episode we wind up on the Romulan border.  In the previous episode (Aquiel), we were on the Klingon border.  Two episodes before that (Chain of Command) we were on the Cardassian border.  Does the Enterprise ever stay in one place?

Anyway, Troi finally gets an episode about her that doesn’t suck.  Her empathic skills are put to good use and her ability to improvise in a terrifying situation is fun to see and gives her character more depth, and strength.  My main quibble is that Spock’s cowboy diplomacy is now obviously including kidnapping and murder.  Picard seems to dismiss a little too easily that Spock’s guidance led his own officer to be terrorized in the name of long-term benefit.  I would imagine he (and the rest of the crew) wouldn’t be so immediately delighted at the end about obtaining the defector.