We continue Season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation with “Silicon Avatar,” “Disaster,” and “The Game.” This week, we get: An episode with a great premise that can’t quite stick the landing The Enterprise crew thrown into unexpected situations and unusual pairings A story about addictive technology that feels a little more relevant every year We covered: In “Silicon Avatar,” an old threat returns when the Crystalline Entity attacks another colony. The Enterprise picks up a scientist who has dedicated her life to studying the Entity, but her interest turns out to be a lot more personal than scientific. We discuss the callback to Data’s origins, whether this episode ever had a chance at a satisfying ending, subtle character development, actors pretending to play instruments, and what it means to dedicate your entire life to finding and destroying something. In “Disaster,” the Enterprise is crippled and the crew is scattered into some very unusual combinations. Picard gets stuck with a group of children, Worf finds himself delivering a baby, and Troi unexpectedly ends up as the senior officer on the bridge. We talk about why these unlikely pairings work so well, Troi being forced into command, whether her empathic abilities should have been more useful, questionable space physics, science words, and why sometimes a little cheese is exactly what Star Trek needs. Galaxy Quest also enters the conversation. Finally, in “The Game,” Wesley returns to the Enterprise just in time for nearly everyone aboard to become hopelessly addicted to a new game. On paper, it has everything we should love...a mysterious conspiracy, addictive technology, a solid discussion of screen addiction, and even the return of Wesley. But, we just couldn’t get invested. We discuss social media, phone games, dopamine hits, South Park, Neuralink, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, jigsaw puzzles, anti-drug specials, and, of course, Kwazy Kupcakes from Brooklyn 99! Three episodes with plenty of interesting ideas — even when the execution didn’t always work for us. A quick production note: I had some internet issues while we were recording, so there are a few moments where the audio might get a bit jumpy Next time: TBG 069 — Unification I | Unification II | A Matter of Time Never give up! Never surrender!
