YOUTUBE - First Time Watching ALL of Star Trek - Episode 170: Yesterday's Enterprise (TNG S3E15)
Added 2024-06-23 19:55:43 +0000 UTC
Comments
There is one episode of TNG that I rank as the highest of the entire franchise, past and up to 2024. I'm sure you can guess which one I'm thinking of. Heck, perhaps one of the best singular episodes of TV ever made anywhere.
Paul
2024-06-25 20:53:29 +0000 UTCAmazing episode and a great reaction from you guys! You have just watched the #2 episode of the season and of the series. Yes, that's right, the #1 episode of the entire TNG series in my ranked list is yet to come here in season 3. Coming up yet in this season for your reactions are the #s 1, 3, 4, and 5 for the season (not in that order) and the next 2 reactions chronologically are part of that group. You are in the midst of amazing television, some of the best made. Non-spoiler heads up: just as an FYI, when you guys get to Deep Space Nine later this year/early next year, I'll be pointing out the fact that the top 2 TNG episodes would rank at about #s 4 and 8 if I ranked DS9 and TNG together. So like I said, it gets even better. Enjoy!
Intelligent Donkey
2024-06-24 21:46:03 +0000 UTCThe drive-a-bus-into-his-mouth look? I remember that day.
Jovet
2024-06-24 07:22:46 +0000 UTCWe can also assume the whole ship exploded from its warp core breach, and that breach caused the time anomaly in the first, err, last place. (Timey-whimey stuff is hard.)
Jovet
2024-06-24 07:21:47 +0000 UTCI figured the timeline change would make them stand up and scream. And then the sudden appearance of Tasha... well, I anticipated them to a'splode. Into a fine, bloody mist.
Jovet
2024-06-24 07:20:18 +0000 UTCLOL!
Jovet
2024-06-24 07:19:33 +0000 UTCI've been waiting patiently to see your reaction to the Tasha reveal and you guys did not disappoint! One of my favorite of the season and I love that they went back and gave her a proper hero's death. As she said "make it count for something". Emotional.
Jim Dougherty
2024-06-24 05:12:05 +0000 UTCIt's a different episode and certainly a memorable episode, but without Tasha and the special changes to the war-time Enterprise crew and set which made the episode feel more like a movie, is it really a GREAT episode? They should have mixed it up some more. Maybe make Geordi the pilot again, make Data the chief engineer, make Troi a nurse or doctor helping Dr. Crusher, etc. Wesley always seemed better suited for engineering. Maybe make him Data's assistant there and put O'Brien in Data's spot. Since it was just for one episode they really could have stirred everything up just for fun.
Chtphr Rrr
2024-06-24 04:41:58 +0000 UTC16:43 In the early drafts of the episode, it actually was written that more characters were going to die in the final space battle. Apparently, we would've seen Data be electrocuted when his console overloaded and Wesley was going to be decapitated by a big piece of metal shrapnel from an explosion. Brutal stuff.
Gunnar359
2024-06-24 04:33:30 +0000 UTCI went to at least two Star Trek conventions around this time period in my very remote part of the US. Somehow they convinced Marina Sirtis, Majel Barrett, and John de Lancie to stop by the local university town during these two years. (George Takei had already stopped by my actual smaller hometown just before Star Trek IV came out, and William Shatner made a movie there when the town's population was about 13,000.) Marina Sirtis said that the only original series episode she ever really saw was the one with the space hippies. She has or had a biting personality; there was some distance between the two fan groups back and casts then.
Chtphr Rrr
2024-06-24 04:27:10 +0000 UTCShe must not have seen the movies
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-24 04:14:44 +0000 UTCHa! That's about a 15-second mouth open moment from Alex.
Chtphr Rrr
2024-06-24 04:13:57 +0000 UTClol yes, we mean it felt quick
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-24 04:13:44 +0000 UTCWhen you guys say "quick" i guess you mean pacing, as I'm pretty sure the episodes are all about the same length
paultardspambot .
2024-06-24 04:11:12 +0000 UTCI actually liked that ultra quick cut at the end. I think it worked better then some "woosh" effect to have it just be, as soon as it was crossed, the events we just saw never happened and were back to our crew and our timeline. I know u guys thought there should have been something, but the clean cut works for me
paultardspambot .
2024-06-24 04:09:04 +0000 UTCor rather seeing it again I guess data didn't die, although the implied effect seemed to be the enterprise-d was about to blow up just as the Enterprise C crossed the anomaly.
paultardspambot .
2024-06-24 04:07:00 +0000 UTCOriginally, the last scene had Data being electrocuted and Wesley being decapitated before Riker dies. I'm guessing they felt that was too much, or it was more then the censors would let them get away with. I don't know if that would have worked better, I feel like just seeing Riker die gets the "impact" they were going for, three gruesome deaths might have broken up the pacing and drama of the moment. Since Picard is the only one left to keep firing, we can assume the rest of the bridge crew were killed.
paultardspambot .
2024-06-24 04:04:49 +0000 UTCso the canon answer to this- with the massive amount of power required to run a starship, you have charged plasma conduits running everywhere. People would say "why dont they have circuit breakers?" but its not an electrical overload, its a plasma explosion, which is much harder to dampen
paultardspambot .
2024-06-24 04:01:59 +0000 UTC"The pasting we gave them at Archer 4" Hmm, I wonder who that planet is named after. Great when there are happy accidents like that.
paultardspambot .
2024-06-24 04:00:14 +0000 UTCha, good eyes. The extra yellow shirt in the back was wearing a season 1-2 uniform. I wonder if that was an intentional choice or if they didn't have one that fit him so they dusted out one from the old seasons. It makes sense enough with the alternate timeline, perhaps thats the uniform for enlisted men (which in a long war like this would be quite common as you wouldn't have enough officers).
paultardspambot .
2024-06-24 03:59:07 +0000 UTCYeah, I was born in 1977 (instantly became a Star wars fan) and never really watched TOS, though I was aware of it in pop culture. I actually got my start with the TOS movies and loved them. I understood the concept of them coming back to the movies after 10 years away from the original show I think, but I just didn’t have any reference beyond that, since I didn’t watch the show, and the little snippets I saw in pop culture looked too old and colorful and cheesy, not unlike the Batman show of that time that I grew up with, which got away with the same thing for being so campy, I figured as a child. But I loved the TOS movies. My parents even took us all to see Star Trek 4, since that movie connected more with pop culture for the present day setting and save the whales and such. It was accessible to non fans, even if it was part of the Khan trilogy. Sadly, I skipped Star Trek 5 in theaters, since the trailers looked cheap and cheesy and word of mouth at the time wasn’t good, and really sadly, I skipped Star Trek 6 in theaters because of Star Trek 5’s previous performance. Maybe some felt by then that the TOS crew was done while the TNG crew were flying high by then, but Star Trek 6 ends up becoming one of my favorite Star Trek movies out of all of them. And then I was excited to have my own show with TNG at age 10 and watched it very regularly all the way through until the movies when I turned 17 and continued on. Never missed a Star Trek movie or series after that (until recent years :). So basically, I was a TOS movie fan (not a show fan), and TNG show fan at the same time. Now that I’m older, and we have the remastered and improved effects and high definition for the TOS show, they are far more watchable for me than when I was a kid. Plus, going back to pure trek in the beginning feels nice.
Bagofsoup
2024-06-24 03:51:20 +0000 UTCI’ve been waiting for you guys to get to this episode and see your reaction when the timeline switches. And it wasn’t disappointing.
Reality Strikes
2024-06-24 03:00:59 +0000 UTCShe is so suprised by the Sick bay even though it is the same set used in the last two TOS movies.
Quacer Productions
2024-06-24 02:39:20 +0000 UTCLove the Ambassador class!
Bob M
2024-06-24 02:29:22 +0000 UTCWe’ll see the return of Rachel Garrett in Michelle Yeoh’s Section 31 movie.
Bob M
2024-06-24 02:28:32 +0000 UTCI've been waiting for you to see this one. Holding in the spoiler. You'll love this one. I do.
Joe Ibrahim
2024-06-24 01:08:20 +0000 UTCI love a lot of the trivia behind this episode. The bit I haven't seen mentioned (at least in these comments) is that the special effects folks designed the Enterprise-C to look like an evolution in ship design bridging from an Excelsior-class ship (which Trek nerds in 1990 were assuming the Enterprise-B was) to the Galaxy-class Enterprise-D. (The 1701-C is Ambassador class, for the record.)
Robert Hutchinson
2024-06-24 00:51:13 +0000 UTCThe episode was never controversial, lol. There was a lot of fuss about it behind the scenes. They expected hate mail. They never received any of any kind. All the controversy was manufactured to try and get a boost in the ratings figures. In fact, Nichelle Nichols recalled an anecdote about Plato where someone in the south said "oh, well, Kirk couldn't help himself. It's understandable when you're holding such a beautiful woman in your arms." As to the TOS TNG hate, again, I was a kid in the early 90s. The animosity may have been there early on, and some might argue rightfully so, but for as long as I was a fan through the 90s into the early 2000s there was far more flak given to Voyager and Enterprise, and certain specific episodes of DS9, than there ever was between TOS and TNG fans. It wasn't until the Trek reboots came out that I really started to see massive flame wars erupting between TOS and TNG fans. And, again, keep in mind, as a young kid in the early 90s... I was a TOS guy. TOS and the movies were always my jam. TNG was great, but it wasn't my first Star Trek love. So I don't even agree that this was a generational thing. It's an individual thing, and sometimes those individuals got into groups and debated... But it was nothing like the absolute cluster f*ck that was the forums and trekmovie discussion threads from around 2008 to 2015.
Steven Johnson
2024-06-24 00:47:19 +0000 UTCI remember a friend of mine caught a little bit of a TOS episode rerun late at night when TNG was in its heyday. The episode happened to be "Plato's Stepchildren" and it was the part with Kirk and Spock being controlled by the aliens, were dressed in togas and made to dance around and spout silly rhymes and pretend to be a horse. My friend was like "this is so stupid...I just can't...!" I often wonder what she would of said if I told her (had I known to do so back then) that that episode was one of the most controversial episodes of television ever at that time. (Because of the Kirk/Uhura kiss).
Drawkcabi
2024-06-24 00:32:24 +0000 UTCThis episode…oh, this episode… 🫨
ChemicalCrash
2024-06-24 00:24:51 +0000 UTCI remember getting a TV Guide in 1992-ish and on the front was "It's Kirk vs. Picard!' I remember a Night Court episode with a small part where Trekkies were brought into court because of a fight breaking out at a convention between TOS fans and TNG fans. I've got a reprint of a MAD Magazine which originally came out when TNG was in Season 1. They were spoofing it and the big take away was Trek fans didn't like it and TOS era would always be superior. It was all around and a real thing back in the day. It just cooled way down once TNG started getting really good. I started going to conventions in 1991 and by then TNG had been accepted and was just starting to become more popular than TOS and the movies. But there will still people who talked about...up to the point of there even being panels about it...that just a few years ago almost everyone HATED TNG. But by then we had reached this Kumbaya time among most fans. TOS was awesome. The movies (except V) were fantastic, TNG was amazing. But it was all too brief. It was funny, because at just that point (early 90's) that young kids raised knowing nothing but TNG started speaking up and teens who were never into TOS but had found TNG and really liked it joined the fray. And that's when the "TOS is too stupid/campy/crappy looking!" faction really started to rise. It was always like this.
Drawkcabi
2024-06-24 00:15:17 +0000 UTCStarfleet, never: "Let's not load dynamite into our consoles."
Juan Tutrífor
2024-06-23 23:51:43 +0000 UTCI watched TNG as it aired. Up to this point, it was always the show I watched if I was home on Saturday evening and not doing anything else. If I missed some episodes...meh. I always loved Star Trek, mostly TOS and the movies though. It was this episode though that made me 100% buy into TNG. I was BLOWN away by it! Not only TASHA WAS BACK! But...they were wearing the movie uniforms on the C!!! And the C itself in certain parts looked like the movie Enterprise!!! This was when TNG made me completely accept that it was really solidly connected to TOS era. Even with McCoy in the pilot and little crumbs like in "The Naked Now" and a few other things, I still felt like TNG was a separate thing. After this episode I truly felt, TOS era, TNG era... it was ALL Star Trek! After "Yesterday's Enterprise", I HAD to watch every episode. If I wasn't going to be home...got to set the timer on the vcr to record! ...as a matter of fact, I thought, let's just record every episode on VHS, no matter what, for keeps...which is what I eventually ended up doing. All through the rest of TNG, then DS9, and Voyager.* I then went back and picked up the TNG episodes I missed in reruns and the same with all of TOS. I already had all the movies up to that point on VHS. When Sci-fi Channel started airing TAS on Saturday mornings, I even picked up most of those. I was always in to Star Trek...but after this I was IN TO STAR TREK. My family was on the verge of thinking I had been abducted into a cult. *Enterprise? We'll not talk about that. Not yet, at least.
Drawkcabi
2024-06-23 23:51:17 +0000 UTCDue to Whoopi Goldbergs schedule they had to bump the filming up to before Christmas to make sure she could be in it. So a bunch of writers had to write the script over Thanksgiving weekend, Michael Pillar voluntarily had his name left off of it due to rules only allowing four names.
Flatlander
2024-06-23 23:41:23 +0000 UTCIkr!
Dru Blood
2024-06-23 23:40:45 +0000 UTCThere is no war between ST and SW fans. The Senate has been informed that any animosity between the fandoms is a result of a mining disaster. 😉
tyranusfan
2024-06-23 23:36:10 +0000 UTCTo this day that line never fails to give me chills.
Flatlander
2024-06-23 23:33:44 +0000 UTCThat is a perfect description! Same with me!
Drawkcabi
2024-06-23 23:12:49 +0000 UTCThat's sort of the joke of it now, we were two years behind for most of TNG as it was airing, but now we have more digital channels replaying episodes several times daily than most, if not all, other countries (as well as Sky+ and streaming apps)! XD
James Knight
2024-06-23 22:50:31 +0000 UTC"Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise." We won't, Captain.
Juan Tutrífor
2024-06-23 22:25:23 +0000 UTCI eat pieces of shit like Romulans for breakfast.
Juan Tutrífor
2024-06-23 22:15:07 +0000 UTCBorn in 1979, and saw lots of TOS when I was little, beginning from parents rewatching on syndication with me. If you had 80s cable, there were a LOT of local stations that had it broadcast nationally. Was well primed for Next Gen to show up. Frequently renting the TOS cast movies really sealed the deal. Clearly there are some different experiences out there, my GF in college definitely watched a lot of TNG and no TOS at all. I really thought it was extremely hard to miss.
Dan Proctor
2024-06-23 22:13:46 +0000 UTCAlso add in Captain Garrett. All more-than-great!!!
Jovet
2024-06-23 21:55:43 +0000 UTCOne of the few we (watching TA since the beginning of TNG) have been waiting year(s) for!
Jovet
2024-06-23 21:55:06 +0000 UTCTop 3 of TNG!
Jovet
2024-06-23 21:53:20 +0000 UTCThis is one of the best episodes of the series but it's maybe the next episode that I would put above this one. As one of the best written episodes and in may top 3, I'm sure you will both love it.
Robert Bruce
2024-06-23 21:53:08 +0000 UTC@sjmpoo It's funny—Kirk is one of my main issues with TOS. I don't find him a believable, likable, 23rd-Century character.
Jovet
2024-06-23 21:53:07 +0000 UTCIn comments from another episode I referred to myself as a kid waiting on Christmas, anticipating you both watching certain episodes in this season. You just opened one of my favorites…with more to come!
Joseph Wallace
2024-06-23 21:34:23 +0000 UTC2:14 Seriously, your reactions right there never get old.
Jovet
2024-06-23 21:31:47 +0000 UTCMm...Many oldtime TOS fans were in fact vehemently against TNG until the very end of S3. There was an actual market for tshirts and signs reading "Not My Captain", signposting their opposition to the very idea of having a USS Enterprise not helmed by Kirk.
sjmpoo
2024-06-23 21:28:10 +0000 UTCAre you starting to realize who started the war with Star Wars fans? I am an old TOS fan and I saw Star Wars on the first night of its release. No surprise I'm a Star Wars fan and a Star Trek fan. TNG fans who only watched that itineration of Star Trek attacked TOS fans immediately. Then they attacked Star Wars fans. Since you watched TOS , TAS and were already Star Wars fans they will come for you. Don't worry its good when the assholes doesn't like you.
Aaron Holden
2024-06-23 21:26:12 +0000 UTCI grew up in the UK, so didn't get to see TNG as it first aired (we were a good couple of years behind the US for ages), but I remember the buzz that happened after this episode came out. Even without the internet, it was all over the sci-fi magazines of the time. "Best episode ever!" "TNG now better than the original." Stuff like that. This episode is often cited as the moment TNG really came out of the shadow of TOS and from here on out, it just accelerated ahead to become the pinnacle series of the franchise. Its also Quentin Tarantino's favourite episode of Star Trek. There's an interview out there somewhere, where he just gushes about how perfect he thinks it is!
Dan J Reid
2024-06-23 21:23:37 +0000 UTCI'm a 90s baby and just missed most of TNG's first run and without cable, there was little chance of seeing TNG re-runs much. Fortunately my *Blockbuster* had a solid TOS collection + my Dad's taped TOS movies so I always love both. First time I caught TNG was in eaaaaarly Youtube where people uploaded them split into 5 parts each lol. Thanks for the fun reactions guys.
RoyRoyRoy
2024-06-23 21:23:12 +0000 UTCOld time TOS guy here. This is my single favourite TNG episode. How cool is the Enterprise-C? And how great was it to give alt-Tasha a meaningful death?
Bob M
2024-06-23 21:20:58 +0000 UTCThere are also people who grew up watching ST: Voyager who never saw TNG. (and didn't want to)
tyranusfan
2024-06-23 21:13:12 +0000 UTCYes!!! The storyline, the lighting, the score, the acting, the return of Tasha ... My favorite episode for season 3. Glad we're finally here. The discussion is going to be 🔥 Can't wait. Thanks my dudes. 🖖
Dru Blood
2024-06-23 21:06:01 +0000 UTC"forehead prosthetic dead" should be a thing
Ivan Ivanov
2024-06-23 20:53:05 +0000 UTCThis episode had a very, very long and complicated lineage. Ronald D. Moore does a commentary for this on the BluRay Season 3 set and goes into great depth about it. As memory serves at varying times, Sarek was in a version of the script, a version with the Guardians of Forever existed and the Magnificent Seven ending you all wanted to see where most of the main crew dies was nearly filmed but cut for budgetary reasons.
James Viles
2024-06-23 20:51:27 +0000 UTCThis may have been the first on-screen reference to a character named "Archer." Said character had a couple of planets named after them and one of them is mentioned a couple of times here. In a few years, you may meet this character. Just sayin'.
Darin Wagner
2024-06-23 20:32:26 +0000 UTCEasily one of my top episodes of the whole series! Really appreciated them finally giving Tasha a real goodbye after such a nothing death in season 1. Loved seeing the movie era uniforms come back as well, was always a huge fan of them! Always found it weird that Guinean is “attuned” with time while watching through the series first time, but never really took me out of it.
Noah Fawkes
2024-06-23 20:22:46 +0000 UTCI was surprised with how many comments we got from TNG fans of “I tried out TOS but too cheesy for me” and things along those lines. Then I remembered, if you were growing up when TNG was airing it’s not like all of TOS is available at your fingertips to watch like it is now so I get it. They probably saw some random mid-tier episode on TV once with no context, weren’t into it, and never thought about it again lol.
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-23 20:21:19 +0000 UTCYes! We like this one!
Silk
2024-06-23 20:19:29 +0000 UTC1:07 You know... It's funny. I grew up when TNG was about halfway over. I was 6 or 7 when TNG was over in 94. I knew some Star Trek fans, I went to a couple conventions, later on I was on the boards. There was never really a major animosity between TOS and TNG fans. The odd debate over the better captain, etc... But most of the time that was fairly facetious. It may just be me, but I don't think this divide became a real thing until internet pop culture began to recycle every joke into full blown trends.
Steven Johnson
2024-06-23 20:11:26 +0000 UTCA true classic!
Bret Kay
2024-06-23 20:05:01 +0000 UTCThis edit will be fire, so many reaction hits and pops in this episode
SinocTheHodgeheg
2024-06-23 20:01:58 +0000 UTCI’m a huge fan of all star trek from the 1960s to the late 90s. Watching it in release order is a great idea. It will be interesting to see what your take is once you’re done.
Just another Red Shirt
2024-06-23 19:59:00 +0000 UTCJust once I'd like someone to walk up to Guinan and tell her "This is wrong. You're not supposed to be here. You're supposed to be dead. Naw, just screwin' with ya!"
Trouty McTroutTrout
2024-06-23 19:57:36 +0000 UTC
