Star Trek: TNG 5x03 Full Reaction!
Added 2025-11-08 18:00:11 +0000 UTC
Comments
Shared thing of being more here for Jess’s love of character rather than being here for the surprised reactions she has to big twists. The latter doesn’t hurt, her reaction to Unbreakable being one that instantly springs to mind, as does The Godfather back in June, but the love of character is the biggest draw. Yeah, if I have dates right, this episode was about two months before Undiscovered Country. Think this was October of ‘91, meaning I would have been six months old. You can tell that around this time that everyone was considering new ideas of expanding the franchise. Coincidentally, the same year saw the release of Heir to the Empire and Dark Empire, so both Stars Trek and Wars had a good year with expanding the franchises. It was a very bold approach to introduce Ro as recurring before the intention for her to be a lead in a show. Which didn’t quite pan out given Michelle’s historic predilection of wanting to constantly move forward in her career and not get stuck in a single role. See you say you first saw her in 24, and I saw her first in Swimming with Sharks. (Again, complete understanding about nobody wanting to see that movie ever again, much though it is rotten that her work in it would be buried and forgotten, all because of shit that she didn’t even do.) Really do need to rewatch the other older Trek shows. Do recall liking Kira and how you describe being the new character without the baggage made her need to earn Sisko’s trust worked better. I know that Ro’s more recent appearance sparked a bit of annoyance with the fandom, but they addressed something that I wanted them to. Something I badly wanted and needed to see. They gave me that, I’m very grateful to the show for giving me that, and it outweighs the complaints from the fans. More on that later when we get to that show. It does speak highly of Michelle how she makes her debut as Ro as great as it is, and she works so well with the rest of the cast. The then recent subtext of the Iran-Contra scandal, combined with recent history, yeah, the themes in this pack a punch. Kennelly openly being a bad guy is a bold approach to the franchise and shows how they were testing the waters at the time. He did have a vibe or two that sent up a few red flags. This is one of the better dynamics that Guinan has. She did excellent work with getting Ro to open up, leading with, “Sit down at my table. Put your mind at ease. If you relax it will enable me to do anything I please.” (Not seen the anime referenced, but google informs what it is, and that it’s Keith David singing, so I went with his INCREDIBLE Disney Villain song.) There is the usual reminder when something was made thing here. You raise the good points of how there are still a few parts that don’t hold up. Yeah, the surname first concept isn’t the most outlandish thing here on earth, as for instance, that is the norm in Korea. Not sure if I was supposed to find the description of Riker going through the whole episode talking like a white character in a Spike Lee movie funny, but that got a huge laugh. That part is uncomfortable now that we know about the religious importance of the earrings and how the Cardassians tried to eradicate that. As you say, we give the tiniest pass as they hadn’t worked that detail out yet. With that future knowledge in mind, yeah, the Star of David comparison is apt, and is completely hypocritical considering Worf being allowed to wear the baldric. It does help that Riker was the only one who made a stink about it, and even then, it’s still just a dick move. I was wondering if I forgot about any future episodes that touched on why Ro was in prison. Maybe it is touched on later, and we’re just not remembering. Far as I immediately recall, it doesn’t happen, which stinks. Regardless, we get a terrific character in Ro. Great to see her introduction again, and now even better seeing Jess get to experience this again. Now I am REALLY excited to see Jess get to experience her favorite episode again.
Thomas Corp
2025-11-09 04:39:03 +0000 UTCI've reached a point where I'm watching much more for your love of particular characters than surprise at twists, so I'm definitely up for something like this whenever it happens. This episode finds the show at a very interesting point in both the franchise's history and all of television. With TNG now a firmly established and acclaimed hit, and everyone knowing full well that Undiscovered Country was the end of the road for TOS, the crew started thinking about how Trek could expand again. And among the various ideas batted around, one that quickly became appealing was very daring for the time, introducing a character like Ro Laren who could have a recurring role here before going off to be one of the leads of another show. It didn't quite work out that way since they happened to get Michelle Forbes, who to this day is well known for wanting to constantly move forward in her career and not get stuck in a single role (I first saw her in 24, where she was randomly killed off after a few episodes just because she told them she wanted to leave), but that still ended up great as her intended role was reworked into Kira Nerys, and it was a lot more interesting to have a Bajoran with zero prior experience with Starfleet whose trust Sisko had to earn. Though that didn't stop Forbes from eventually coming back in Picard to give Ro proper closure, in one of the best things the show did. And Ro herself is pretty much perfect through the whole episode, immediately making clear why they thought this character would have the legs to carry a whole other show of her own and bringing an exciting new dynamic that Trek had never really tackled before. The specter of the Iran-Contra scandal from a few years earlier hangs heavily over all this, and of course there are certain things going on in the world right now that means it still has all its same power and necessity. Even the casting a Starfleet officer firmly as the bad guy shows a willingness to be more open-minded with the kinds of storytelling they could do, and Kennelly makes quite a hissable guy even from the start where my suspicions got aroused. Maybe he can hang out with Tom Paris for a while in the clink. And of course, Guinan gets one of her better roles here as Ro brings out a unique way of relating and getting her and Picard to open up. Really loved her giving the whole speech of "You're a screws-loose boozer, an only one-star reviews-er, you're a power-bottom at rock bottom, but you got company." Unfortunately, I've never been much of a fan of this episode otherwise. I know, I know, we need to consider the time a piece of art was made, but I distinctly remember having a handle on certain things that are screwed up here as a teenager just a few years later. Most of all the way everyone acts totally mystified at the concept of a culture that puts the surname first, as if there aren't plenty of places right here on Earth that have done it for centuries. The biggest victim is Jonathan Frakes, who has to go through the whole episode talking like a white character in a Spike Lee movie, though at least it's pretty accepted that they hadn't yet come up with the idea of the religious importance of Bajoran earrings, and how the Cardassians tried to eradicate that, which makes his demanding Ro remove it pretty much like ripping off someone's Star of David necklace (it helps that the gendered placement of the earrings was also retconned as everyone using the right ear, unless you're evil). Though it's also very hard not to think about how everyone's fine with Worf's far more noticeable baldric, where you basically just have to assume Piller and Berman were so used to it by now that they simply didn't think of the contradiction. And it comes off as just plain writing cowardice that we get so few details about why Ro was in prison, clearly so that neither her or anyone who has a problem with her will look too bad. As far as I recall, it's never once even mentioned again. Still, for what the episode does do right I'm glad we have it and such a great character that came from it, even if we didn't get as much of her as anyone wanted. And it was lovely seeing you get to experience this again.
Ryan
2025-11-09 03:41:03 +0000 UTCRo Laren - we love!
Kimberli Sinning
2025-11-08 23:11:14 +0000 UTC
