UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek TNG S3E11 - The Hunted
Added 2024-05-23 20:43:05 +0000 UTC
Comments
Agreed - B tier. Not bad by any means, but not as top tier as some of the others in the third season.
The Ninth Doctor
2024-06-04 21:23:51 +0000 UTCAggressively average. Not bad with a good seed of a story idea with treatment of veterans, but slightly missed on the execution. And yes, still 6 bangers coming up...
The Ninth Doctor
2024-06-04 21:22:43 +0000 UTCThe Hunted isn't an amazing episode or anything, but I do feel it gets some undeserved hate. Mostly I agree it's "alright", but I'm always going to have a soft spot for a story about veterans being abandoned by their country, which remains a real issue today. This episode is also an example of the kind of unrestricted democracy Americans tend to decry with the whole "we're a republic, not a democracy". Of course even in self labeled democracies, there are still rules. It's no a wild west, anything goes system. With the Angosians, majority rule allowed them to just sweep their veterans under the rug and forget about them. Their rights should have been guaranteed and not subject to a vote. For this reason, I do find Danar and the others sympathetic characters. I agree however that while it was cool to see the service corridors, or "Jefferies tubes" as we hear the term used for the first time, and other areas of the enterprise like the cargo bays and brig, the escape sequence took up far too much of the episode. At least it let O'Brien get in on the action for a change. "More security! MORE SECURITY!!" is a classic. Like just about everyone else I can't buy that he's able to fool sensors and repel a transporter beam because he got injected with some hormones and chemicals. If nothing else I assume his body heat would show up on thermal sensors. Stronger, faster, tougher, sure I get that. Even shrugging off a stun shot I can buy on account of those things. I wish there had been a throwaway line about Crusher finding a implant in his body that was connected to his nervous system and couldn't be removed, and that aside from a certain type of scan just registering the mass and shape of the implant, she wasn't able to get any readings on it. At that point masking life signs from the sensors and breaking out of a transporter beam can be attributed to this implant, and it makes a lot more sense. Finally I do like the little scene where Riker pulls Worf aside and emphasizes that Picard's safety is his responsibility. Riker as we know is not fond of letting the captain beam down into hostile situations, but there are times where Picard is going to do so regardless. But even when he makes it difficult, Riker still works around it and does everything he can to ensure his captain's safety. One more example of why Riker is Trek's best XO in my humble opinion.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-05-29 17:37:00 +0000 UTCGoes nowhere, does nothing It's on a bunch of pipes
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-05-29 05:57:12 +0000 UTCThe only place in the world I can get Star Trek and wrestling references
Matthew Beek
2024-05-28 23:55:01 +0000 UTCI completely agree with you guys on this one on all points. After watching your reaction, I realized why this episode is so skipable and forgetable. Over half of it is just Danar escaping. While we need to see a little bit of that to get that he's a super soldier, it drags out FAR too long. All of that action filler does nothing to advance the story. It's like they had 20 mins worth of actual good script and had to stretch the rest out. I started yawning through all the action because nothing was actually happening storywise, plot wise, or character development wise. I feel like this script had a lot of potential, but it needed reworking in order to be good. Bottom 5 of the season for me. Also, the transporter beam thing was dumb.
BN13
2024-05-28 11:50:48 +0000 UTCJesus what a boring episode.
Michael Nemo
2024-05-27 06:27:49 +0000 UTCI’m not sure what GNDN means
Thicketdweller
2024-05-25 11:56:19 +0000 UTCThe main reason I like that movie is Jenna Lee Harrison, Everybody else in it was you know good in fact the story was actually really good. It even had Shirley Jones from the partridge family as James Garner‘s wife And don’t believe that this movie is in anyway realistic because I’m pretty sure some military craft would’ve blown that tank apart from the sky at a great distance or at least it would’ve Today I don’t know about 1984
Thicketdweller
2024-05-25 11:50:43 +0000 UTCI personally am grateful to hear this story. It is often impressive to recognize the strengths of people who fought and in some cases died for our country while our country spent its time dewriding them and diminishing them. The strength of America is shown over and over again by its citizens and their resilience I subscribe to the idea that all people are created equal, and that no president is above the law. Core tenants of the belief in America that I was raised with
Thicketdweller
2024-05-25 11:47:52 +0000 UTCGNDN
T’Pynyn of Vulcan
2024-05-25 05:21:46 +0000 UTCI'm really having fun watching these episodes with you. I'm discovering things that I either never saw before or I just forgot about. Especially with episodes, like this one, that don't get as many rewatches. Great job! As usual, the Enterprise leaves and we are left wondering what happened. 🤔
T’Pynyn of Vulcan
2024-05-25 05:08:43 +0000 UTCThis episode was better than I remembered. Not in a "top list" for me, but still a good, standard episode. Also another episode in which the Enterprise arrives somewhere, discovers animosity between two groups of people and Picard leaves them to figure it out themselves with a healthy dose of sass, I might add! I look forward to your reactions to the rest of the season.
And the rest!
2024-05-24 23:44:12 +0000 UTCI wish people wouldn’t hype everything up. If episodes are overhyped they are never as good. It’s the same thing with “Shades of Gray” - notwithstanding the clips it’s nowhere near as bad as people said it was going to be. Based on the reactions so far “The Defector” could easily be in the boys top 2 or 3 episodes of the season.
Jon1701
2024-05-24 21:01:40 +0000 UTCYeah The Defector is in my top 5
Jon1701
2024-05-24 20:47:28 +0000 UTCI agree, I think he was very well cast.
Steve Boshear
2024-05-24 14:16:09 +0000 UTCThis ep is one of the most quintessential "yes, this is an episode" episodes there are
llama
2024-05-24 12:11:36 +0000 UTCThe back ups could have been disabled from engineering earlier
Derek Orr
2024-05-24 11:57:03 +0000 UTCIts really no different than how we deal with veterans from iraq and Afghanistan wars
Derek Orr
2024-05-24 11:55:19 +0000 UTCYa that kinda makes sense….but does not explain how we beamed himself somewhere else
Derek Orr
2024-05-24 11:52:28 +0000 UTCThat idea is what makes it weak
Derek Orr
2024-05-24 11:48:20 +0000 UTCYa but it was a bit silly that this planet just injected chemicals and then they are super soldiers who can take on the federation
Derek Orr
2024-05-24 11:47:33 +0000 UTCThought you would like it a lot more
Ee'char
2024-05-24 09:28:41 +0000 UTCYou guys watch the next episode same day right. Well in that case. You know it wasn't a super strong week (but again...I actually thought this one was slightly better than decent).
Greg Quinn
2024-05-24 05:35:09 +0000 UTCI took the transporter beam break out to be related to his ability to be shielded from scanning and his ability to absorb high stun levels with few problems? Like he can somehow redirect energy of the transporter and hence his own transport because of his special cells....I don't know. .throw some techno babble in. Lol
Greg Quinn
2024-05-24 05:33:53 +0000 UTCMaybe top 10 for me...
Greg Quinn
2024-05-24 05:30:14 +0000 UTCWell I definitely liked this episode more than you guys but it's not better than the defector or any of the best episodes coming up.... But...it is better than some episodes coming up...and I'll just leave it at that....🤓
Greg Quinn
2024-05-24 05:28:44 +0000 UTCI've seen every episode of star Trek (oldTrek not newTrek) at least twice and yet I didn't remember this one. Surprising because I actually really liked it. Felt like watching new TNG
E Parhas
2024-05-24 05:10:59 +0000 UTCThis is basically TNG does a super weak version of First Blood (rambo 1.) Very meh. BUT James Cromwell is ALWAYS nice to see.
Todd Pritchett
2024-05-24 04:47:44 +0000 UTCI think this is a solid B-tier episode. I noticed while watching that the action was pretty intense for a Trek episode; they were really tackling, grappling, and rolling around in a believable way.
Cameron Thacker
2024-05-24 04:39:44 +0000 UTCSetting the two sides up against each other and then beaming out is a lot like Kirk in "A Taste of Armageddon."
James H
2024-05-24 04:33:07 +0000 UTCIts a rather meh episode to me, if I was re watching the series for my own fulfillment solo I would skip over it as with the next episode.
Sequiro
2024-05-24 04:14:10 +0000 UTC@Collin Freeman I like the actor playing Danar! I think he did a very good job.
Jovet
2024-05-24 03:31:51 +0000 UTCBeing in the top 5 of a Star Trek season is a big ask. I love it and it's not in my top five. I probably would put in in my top 10 though.
Steve Boshear
2024-05-24 03:03:58 +0000 UTCI like it probably more than most of the TA, but it is not in my top 5 of the season. Maybe top 10. The main failing for me is the actor playing Danar.
Collin Freeman
2024-05-24 03:01:49 +0000 UTCI guess I'm just a sucker for action, and also for the idea that even against the mighty Enterprise, one stone cold badass can always hold his own.
Steve Boshear
2024-05-24 02:29:28 +0000 UTCMan I guess I'm in the minority, but this was absolutely one of the ones I was counting down to this season. Having seen your other reactions, I can understand how it doesn't fit with the ones that are your favorites (no character scenes), but I love seeing a classic sci-fi idea like the action hero super soldier done on TNG - and pitted against our beloved characters. I think this one's a baller episode.
Steve Boshear
2024-05-24 02:21:52 +0000 UTCThere is a particular genre of Star Trek (and "Doctor Who") episodes to which fans and critics refer as “Let’s Do” episodes. These episodes originate when the show’s writers choose to reimagine a well-known story, whether from legend, literature, film, or television, as a Star Trek episode, plugging the show’s characters into the place of characters from the original work. Previous examples of this genre have included “Balance of Terror,” based on the submarine film "The Enemy Below;" “Elaan of Troyius,” inspired by Shakespeare’s "The Taming of the Shrew" and the legend of Helen of Troy; “The Enemy” earlier this season, a riff on "The Defiant Ones" (or "Enemy Mine"); and “The Doomsday Machine,” “Obsession” and Wrath of Khan, which were all variations on the theme of "Moby-Dick." Viewers of Alex and Josh’s generation may not recognize “The Hunted” as TNG’s version of "First Blood," released in 1982, the first film of the Rambo series starring Sylvester Stallone. As such, “The Hunted” inherits "First Blood"’s commentary on the treatment of Vietnam War veterans returning to the United States – the underlying metaphor which Josh sensed but understandably could not identify. Jeff McCarthy (Roga Danar) is the third guest actor in TNG Season 3 who also appeared in "RoboCop 2"; that film seems to be Season 3’s equivalent of "Total Recall" in Season 2. James Cromwell (Prime Minister Nayrok) would later receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the 1995 film "Babe" (yes, the one with the talking pig). Other than Whoopi Goldberg, who was a recurring cast member, Cromwell was, to my knowledge, the first past or future Oscar nominee to appear in Star Trek since Seymour Cassel in “The Child.” At 6’7”, Cromwell is the tallest actor ever to receive an Oscar nomination. His extraordinary height is evident in the early scene of Cromwell walking alongside Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes (bear in mind that Frakes is not exactly a little person himself). (Edit: When I wrote this comment, I somehow overlooked the fact that James Cromwell appeared in the 1985 "Twilight Zone" episode "A Message from Charity." I always mean to point out whenever a Star Trek actor has also appeared in any version of "The Twilight Zone," although there must have been others I have missed.) Although writer Robin Bernheim (who is a woman, by the way) receives sole screen credit for “The Hunted,” the entire TNG writing staff participated in rewriting the script, as they frequently did. Ira Steven Behr joined TNG as a producer and staff writer during the development of this episode, and Michael Piller greeted him by saying, “Welcome aboard. Now rewrite act three for me and have it on my desk by this evening.” Media critic L. I. Underhill’s essay about the episode on the Eruditorum Press website assumes that Behr rewrote the chase after Danar through the Enterprise, but in fact Danar is in the Enterprise brig throughout Act Three, breaking out of the transporter beam at the very end of the act. This episode is, I believe, the first time O’Brien has gotten to participate in an action sequence. In a subtle piece of continuity, the method Riker suggests Danar might be using to elude the Enterprise’s scanners, hiding over one of the planet’s magnetic poles, is the same method Data mentioned that Riker himself had used in the past in “Peak Performance.” This is another episode in which Dennis McCarthy’s score is more noticeable than usual, allowing us to appreciate his talent. On these occasions, the main difference between McCarthy’s style and that of Ron Jones is that McCarthy does not include distinctive themes specific to the episode or its characters, as Jones usually does. Although I and other commenters have, I believe, been referring to the access tunnels aboard Starfleet vessels as “Jefferies tubes” ever since Alex and Josh were watching TOS, this was a spoiler: “The Hunted” is the first time this term has appeared in dialogue. The name honors Matt Jefferies, the Art Director of TOS who designed the original Enterprise and created the access tunnels for TOS. The term “Jefferies tube” had appeared in scripts as early as “Journey to Babel,” but never on screen until now. “The Hunted” includes one of the most obvious continuity errors in the Star Trek franchise: the hole Danar blasts in the wall over Nayrok’s shoulder in the climactic scene disappears when we cut back to that camera angle, inspiring fan jokes about how the Angosians are so advanced that they have developed self-repairing walls. Director Cliff Bole had hoped for a more elaborate action sequence at the episode’s climax, but considerations of time and budget ruled that out. There is a connection between “The Hunted” and a major spoiler which I gave away in my YouTube comment on one of the Target Audience TOS reactions, before I realized the extent to which Alex and Josh want to avoid spoilers. Since they may have forgotten it by now, I will not repeat the spoiler here.
Anthony Bernacchi
2024-05-24 02:06:41 +0000 UTCI did not remember this one. That says it all.
Sam Langanke
2024-05-24 01:09:53 +0000 UTCViewing this now, I can see that this episode is somewhat underwhelming, but as a kid, I really enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game that was going on here, although the military stuff went right over my head. My main criticism, other than being kind of forgettable, is how did Danar break out of the transporter beam? What caused that flash/explosion? I guess we'll never know.
Ryan Caulfield
2024-05-24 00:27:29 +0000 UTCThis and the next episode aren’t highly regarded, but soon you guys will be needing new pairs of shorts from how excited you get watching some upcoming stuff. Knowing how much you love and seem to understand the characters, I can’t wait to see some of my favorite moments through your eyes.
Brian Moore
2024-05-24 00:04:04 +0000 UTC48:40 Where's the goose? Or maybe that was a duck
Jovet
2024-05-23 23:43:41 +0000 UTCI consider that one a good episode, I know it goes against the grain. I also love The Royale :D
JGoss
2024-05-23 23:31:54 +0000 UTC36:12 I forgot Worf's odd delivery of Danar right there. LOL!
Jovet
2024-05-23 23:31:04 +0000 UTCBasic middle of the road episode
harrypothead42024
2024-05-23 23:21:06 +0000 UTCYes. A more direct commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans after that war.
Collin Freeman
2024-05-23 23:16:55 +0000 UTC@Thicketdweller it's been so long since I saw that film, I forgot he was even in it. I remember Garner, C. Thomas Howell, and Jenilee Harrison, and that's about it.
Collin Freeman
2024-05-23 23:16:11 +0000 UTCYeah, I'm Chinese American, and at least eight members on one side of the family served in WWII for a government that pretty much treated them as second class citizens both before and after the war. Every family member of that era had to carry paperwork that proved that they were not Japanese, so they wouldn't be taken to the concentration camps. Won't go into the extreme racism either, that goes without saying. I gained bits of info here and there over the years, mainly the 'fun' stories of 'sneaking up on the enemy' (which was more to show how to sneak up on my siblings with a rubber band gun), but the questions I really wanted to ask him never were asked. And by the time I finally got up the courage, I decided he was too old and I didn't want to bring up the bad memories. He passed in 2012. My main question, How could you and your brothers/cousins sign up to serve a country that treated everyone that looked Asian like s***, BEFORE the war; and afterwards didn't even thank or recognize what you did or went through? After WWII the Anti-Asian racism was even worse. My imagined answer, is that at the time he still felt our country, not the government, and our families were worth fighting to protect. It took several decades, but in 2018, the govt finally recognized and posthumously awarded Congressional Medals to Chinese American Veterans. And I'm proud to say that both grandfathers and multiple relatives all received one.
Firekrys FWO
2024-05-23 23:14:53 +0000 UTCWell 4/5 are bangers. There's that one unfortunate Riker episode that sneaks in.
Spencer Loften
2024-05-23 23:13:10 +0000 UTCIt also is for me, anyway.
KatWithAttitude
2024-05-23 23:10:41 +0000 UTCThis episode is the first mention of the Jefferies Tube in Trek
JGoss
2024-05-23 22:56:05 +0000 UTCLOVE the shirt!!!
Jovet
2024-05-23 22:55:05 +0000 UTCOne more episode to go, then it's a banger-fest.
JGoss
2024-05-23 22:53:22 +0000 UTCIn TOS there was a time when Scotty crawled up a jefferies tube, a forty five degree angle crawlway alongside the warp drive pylons I believe they may have mentioned jefferies tubes before in TNG but if I am not mistaken this the first appearance of jefferies tubes in TNG and they are more extensive in the galaxy class star ship again some one else said it but the ship is a character each ship having subtle nuances helping to make them unique with strengths and weaknesses many of these characteristics would matter to you more if you role played, or ran battle simulations so, it is kinda niche but calling the ship a character is appropriate
Thicketdweller
2024-05-23 22:51:00 +0000 UTCThe prime Minister to the veterans. “That’ll do pig, that’ll do.”
Philbot
2024-05-23 22:46:46 +0000 UTCI’ve always liked this episode! May be the actiony bits? I think the metaphor is about PTSD and people being changed by combat, these guys were just literally changed for war. And also societies treatment of veterans..
Philbot
2024-05-23 22:45:09 +0000 UTCWhich is to say that he sold that smarmy southern bastard like a used car salesman after tax day.
Thicketdweller
2024-05-23 22:39:30 +0000 UTCI particularly like Cromwell in 1984’s TANK with James Garner. His crooked southern small town sheriff is loathsome.
Thicketdweller
2024-05-23 22:37:19 +0000 UTCCertainly 'meh' on the scale of good to bad. But yeah, this was just 15 years after the end of the Vietnam War, instead of the almost 50 years past it that we are now. How you view it is certainly colored by that difference in perspective.
Jeffrey
2024-05-23 22:34:50 +0000 UTCI wouldn’t say you guys missed a deep metaphor however, this episode was released 6 months or so after the movie Born on the Fourth of July and Rambo III, which was a sequel to first blood. A movie about a Vietnam nam vet unable to cope with civilian life Metaphorically I would say it is Rambo. All over, glossing over the dead guards, the same way Rambo was still a hero after killing the deputy in the helicopter by accident.
Thicketdweller
2024-05-23 22:32:26 +0000 UTCAs usual you guys have a good bead on what episodes are good, bad or meh. This is a "meh" one for me. I appreciate the subject matter they're trying to cover and the action scenes. I just never bought into the story or even the guest character. Better luck next episode!
Trouty McTroutTrout
2024-05-23 22:26:09 +0000 UTCWhat about it surprises you?
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-05-23 22:25:47 +0000 UTCVery surprised at your summary!
Ee'char
2024-05-23 22:17:11 +0000 UTCYou basically summed up my feelings on the episode. The commentary was on Vietnam veterans, which I'm sure you'll get from the Patron takes. So, aside from the transporter thing that I mentioned in my takes, another one that rankled me was that APPARENTLY a conduit on deck 15 controls both the external sensors (no backup systems for those? They seem somewhat important) and the lights for a cargo bay on deck 38.
John
2024-05-23 22:09:08 +0000 UTCJust getting this one out of the way. Move on to the next.
Phil Ken Sebben
2024-05-23 22:03:01 +0000 UTCHm, judging by the closing comments, have you guys not seen First Blood? If you haven't, I highly recommend it.
JGoss
2024-05-23 22:00:04 +0000 UTCKind of a quiet reaction, totally understandable. Yeah, the episode is just...fine. Eh. /shrug
JGoss
2024-05-23 21:54:10 +0000 UTCI agree. I think The Defector is in my top 5 for season 3.
Collin Freeman
2024-05-23 21:44:02 +0000 UTCToo late! Call us Madonna
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-05-23 21:28:05 +0000 UTCJinx!
JD Nevesytrof
2024-05-23 21:26:33 +0000 UTChttps://discord.com/invite/QPcDjMqf
James Bottas
2024-05-23 21:26:13 +0000 UTChttps://discord.com/invite/qBCfNBjk
JD Nevesytrof
2024-05-23 21:26:12 +0000 UTCInvite link?
JGoss
2024-05-23 21:23:24 +0000 UTCCome on the discord and tell us your picks :)
JD Nevesytrof
2024-05-23 21:10:42 +0000 UTCIt's surprising just how long Cromwell had been appearing in movies and TV before 'Babe' catapulted him to the first rank of character actors where he belonged. I met him once in Dublin where he was performing in a play. My wife and I were bringing our two basset hounds to a charity event. The male stopped dead on his lead and I got irritated at yet another halt in our walk. A man's voice commented: "I hope you are going to clean that up!" I looked back and saw our dog had crapped on the pavement and also that James Cromwell had been the man walking past.
Numinous2019
2024-05-23 21:10:41 +0000 UTCIMO there are at least six better. I don't think it puts any pressure on them liking the rest of the episodes.
JGoss
2024-05-23 21:09:20 +0000 UTCStay strong bro
Captain Proton
2024-05-23 21:06:52 +0000 UTCThat's a very mature perspective to have. I'm Irish. My great uncle (on my mother's side) fought in WW1 at The Somme. He returned home and inherited the family farm. I met him as a pre-teen several times and always wondered (even at that young age) what his experiences had been like. He seemed content and of a friendly disposition, but then we all have our submerged psychology and emotions.
Numinous2019
2024-05-23 21:06:50 +0000 UTCDon't get hung up on the "six better episodes", guys. On a lot of reflection, I've personally found four are better, and maybe two are just as good. Of course that's only my personal fan opinion. There is a lot of argument on the discord as to exactly what the sixth "better" episode would be so not everyone has the same idea.
JD Nevesytrof
2024-05-23 21:02:02 +0000 UTCNice to see actor James Cromwell. He plays smarmy well.
Collin Freeman
2024-05-23 20:58:13 +0000 UTCOooo, yeah as a kid this was hard to grasp, but once I got older and learned a lot more about war veterans, especially the Vietnam veterans then it hit a lot harder. My grandparents served in WWII, but there were questions I did not feel comfortable asking. Part of me wishes I had, but then again, that's not something I wanted them to explain and re-live
Firekrys FWO
2024-05-23 20:58:04 +0000 UTCWell, I guess I have this to look forward to while at work. Ugh, shiftwork.
Nolan
2024-05-23 20:50:31 +0000 UTCYES... right when I was literally running out of ideas what to do while waiting :D
Andreas Schmitt
2024-05-23 20:44:44 +0000 UTC
