UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek TNG S2E11 - Contagion
Added 2024-02-22 20:30:26 +0000 UTC
Comments
I want to call out the music in this episode. It's weird and atonal and it makes the whole environment feel off-kilter and uneasy — as it should when the ship is falling apart mid-flight. AFAIK they never used this score again, which I think is a shame. Otherwise, not a great episode, but it stuck with me as a kid because the ship is going haywire, oh nooooo! Today I just love the fact that centuries from now, on the flagship fo the Federation, sometimes you still just have to reboot.
Ryan
2025-08-06 18:34:04 +0000 UTCI'd say I definitely like this episode more than Alex, and probably Josh as well. To me it's kind of like The Last Outpost, but done right. You have this remnant of a highly advanced, ancient alien species whose technology cripples the ship, requiring an away team to beam down and solve the problem. They swapped out the ridiculous Ferengi for the much more convincing Romulans as an antagonist, and the resolution at the end of both is ultimately peaceful. We also get our first mention of Picard's interest in archaeology, as well as the first time Picard orders "tea, Earl Grey, hot". Though I didn't really get Riker's objection to Picard going on the away mission. If it's about his safety, it's not like the ship was any safer. Seeing a Galaxy class blown up was a bit of a shock at this point. The Enterprise is constantly sold as the biggest, most advanced ship in starfleet. There's almost a sense of invincibility about it. To see the Yamato vaporized like that shattered that illusion. The locations we see through the gateway include Toronto city hall, Mount Temple in the Canadian Rockies, Turret Arch in Utah, a kasbah in Morocco, the Temples of Bacchus and Jupiter in Baalbek, Lebanon, and the Pantheon in Athens. Obviously they're meant to be other planets, though who knows, maybe that was ACTUALLY Toronto city hall. But yeah, I'd put this as probably the 8th or 9th best episode of the season.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-07-12 00:52:08 +0000 UTCLooking at the blueprints, I believe any turbolift can go anywhere on the ship, except for the dedicated battle bridge turbo. There are some cases where a turbolift might have to go down a few decks, travel over and go back up. For example there are turbolift tracks on decks 3 and 4 that are separated by the main shuttle bay, some in the central column leading to the bridge, and others in the sections surrounding the shuttle bay, but they all link up at some point. However I did notice that there's only 1 regular turbolift shaft between the saucer and secondary hull
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-07-10 23:59:08 +0000 UTCGood episode, acted brilliantly imo with as you said fantastic direction as well. The mystery is mostly contained within the ship until near the end and I don't know quite how to quantify it but this episode to me has always marked a different.. Feel to all the episodes that went before, like this was the one where all the actors finally clicked with their characters and just became assured and confident and going forward they and the enterprise just becomes a comfortable place to spend time lol.
Incredible Jon
2024-03-07 18:55:56 +0000 UTCI like Wil Wheaton but I really think he peaked with Stand by me.
Philbot
2024-02-26 07:28:25 +0000 UTCWhat I never got about this episode is why’s the technology in sick bay or Geordie’s communicator so integrated with the ship? They should be able to pick up a medical tricorder and use it despite what malfunctions the ship is experiencing. Or Geordie can make a call..
Philbot
2024-02-26 07:25:45 +0000 UTCI though Wheaton did a good job in that scene. The director obviously liked it enough. He was not comfortable just blurting out what was troubling him and he acted out that uncomfortable-ness just fine.
Jovet
2024-02-23 23:52:33 +0000 UTCThough, if I recall correctly, not all turbolifts necessarily go everywhere. Besides the obvious example of the battle bridge turbolift available on the bridge which ONLY goes to the battle bridge.
Jovet
2024-02-23 23:51:02 +0000 UTCRip to the Yamato. Really feels like a throwaway to what would have been the next-closest flagship of the entire fleet.
Evan Guthrie
2024-02-23 17:55:52 +0000 UTCThey even say now the second season is a rollercoaster in quality. Just as we did. :-)
Sam Langanke
2024-02-23 15:16:16 +0000 UTCIt does, and I wonder if it is because of where it sits in the wider context of the show. On a rewatch, when you are aware of some events down the line it is more revealing. I think they picked up that it may be part of a longer narrative anyway.
Paul Rymer
2024-02-23 13:35:14 +0000 UTCyeah i think this episode ranks highly with the fans
Narnman
2024-02-23 12:11:22 +0000 UTCMaybe not such an unforgettable Twilight Zone episode as soon was i read the synopsis i knew exactly who he was! It's interesting the plot of that episode was also about computers
Narnman
2024-02-23 12:10:21 +0000 UTCYou're graduating into full TNG fan: Now that you've had a taste of greatness, instead of looking at a mid episode and saying, "Where are the bad episodes?" you get a mid episode and think, "That could have been better." Welcome. :)
John M.
2024-02-23 11:51:07 +0000 UTCWow...I'm sorry you guys didn't seem to like this one very much, as it's always been one of my early favorites and a standout of Season 2. The backstory of the Iconians, Picard's archaeological interest and friendship with another captain, the reaction of Data's system helping to provide the answer to purging the invasive program from the ship, the race against time with Romulans that ultimately results in a gesture of goodwill by the Enterprise, the great balance between humor and tension in the dialogue and performances, the nice camera work...all of it combines to make this a exemplary Star Trek story, and I'm very disappointed to apparently be in slim company with that assessment.
Patrick47
2024-02-23 02:40:42 +0000 UTCFireball is dangerous, too easy to drink... Cheers!
SonicHiggs
2024-02-23 02:31:25 +0000 UTCThe Rosetta Stone is a real 2,000 year old artifact onto which was carved a text in Ancient Greek, and Ancient Egyptian (in two different writing systems). Only after it was found in 1800 were historians able to learn how to read Egyptian Hieroglyphs.
Aramis Calcutt
2024-02-23 01:37:44 +0000 UTCAfter the craziness of last week, we return to TNG Season 2’s standard level of quality, with an episode which is not an all-time classic but is nonetheless excellent. My late mother was especially fond of this episode because of how well it uses the entire ensemble; she quaintly referred to it as an “everyone episode,” as opposed to a “Riker episode” like “A Matter of Honor” or a “Wesley episode” like “The Dauphin.” Mom’s favorite scene in the episode was Dr. Pulaski explaining how to make a splint. This scene epitomized all the reasons she loved Pulaski. Of course, fans have complained that Dr. McCoy could have played the same scene without any rewriting, but the scene itself is still good. Steve Gerber and Beth Woods, this episode’s writers, were an unusual pair. Gerber was the co-creator of the Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck, who may be best known for his infamously bad motion picture debut in 1986. Beth Woods was the TNG office’s tech support person, so it makes sense that the solution at the end of the episode is to turn the computer off and on again. Among his other roles, Thalmus Rasulala (Captain Donald Varley) appeared early in his career as a technician in “The Brain Center at Whipple’s,” an extremely forgettable 1964 episode of the original Twilight Zone. Rasulala was using his birth name, Jack Crowder, professionally at that time. (“The Brain Center at Whipple’s” aired only four episodes before the end of the series. The Twilight Zone jumped the shark proportionally later in its run than other TV series, but it had done so by that point.) Rasulala also played the father of LeVar Burton’s character in the 1977 "Roots" miniseries. Carolyn Seymour (Sub-Commander Taris) appeared in the 1985 Twilight Zone episode “Ye Gods” as the Fury Megaera. Interestingly, Wil Wheaton’s acting is stiff and unconvincing in the first part of the scene in Picard’s ready room, when he asks about the Iconians, but becomes far better in the latter part of the scene, when he talks about the crew’s reaction to the tragedy of the Yamato’s destruction. I wonder whether Wheaton was deliberately stiff at the beginning of the scene to convey that Wes was nervous about bringing up what he really wanted to discuss with Picard. When Riker says, “Fate protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise” (a paraphrase of a quotation from Otto von Bismarck), one of the historical events of which he is thinking may be the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, which occurred while the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) was out at sea. Also, NASA’s Space Shuttle Enterprise managed to avoid the program’s 2-out-of-5 orbiter destruction rate by not actually flying in space; it is now on display at the Intrepid Museum in Manhattan. A question for everyone (reposted from my Patron Take): Since it was Dr. Crusher who suggested turning the weapons system off in "The Arsenal of Freedom," do you think she would have solved the problem in this episode early on if she had been on the Enterprise?
Anthony Bernacchi
2024-02-23 01:25:26 +0000 UTCTurbolifts travel horizontally as well as vertically. They don't just take you to a particular deck, they can take you to whichever section of the ship you ask. They can also take alternate routes to avoid congestion.
Regan
2024-02-22 23:47:30 +0000 UTCIn the thumbnail picture, I never noticed how red her face is. For someone who is supposed to have GREEN blood...
Jovet
2024-02-22 22:52:44 +0000 UTCI was actually getting *nervous* right before the ship exploded. I wasn't sure how they were gonna take it, or if they were gonna blink and miss it or something! His "OMG!" faces did not disappoint!
Jovet
2024-02-22 22:51:38 +0000 UTCPicard says in his log that the entire crew AND their families perished
Andreas Schmitt
2024-02-22 22:22:54 +0000 UTCShades of the library from All Our Yesterdays?
Collin Freeman
2024-02-22 22:22:11 +0000 UTCAlso shows how ahead of its time it was. Sure, protected memory and reset to protected defaults was already a thing back then among experts but it's pretty recent that this is common knowledge and easy to do on any consumer item.
Andreas Schmitt
2024-02-22 22:21:52 +0000 UTCData - the universal translator.
Collin Freeman
2024-02-22 22:20:23 +0000 UTCJosh, I love your facial expressions. You don't need words - your face says it all.
Collin Freeman
2024-02-22 22:17:41 +0000 UTChuh I'm surprised you guys didn't like this one as much. It was a pretty classic star trek adventure of the week. Not the absolute best...but definitely better than average. We got to see Romulans, Romanian ship interior, another Galaxy class ship, ancient ruins and cool technology with potentially wild implications....(who needs ships anymore). The shock and surprise at a computer virus and how long it took them to reboot etc, did indeed make it clear the episode is from the late 80s
Derek Orr
2024-02-22 21:58:12 +0000 UTCBecause it is.
Jovet
2024-02-22 21:57:37 +0000 UTCAs to the Yamato's destruction, it's even more horrific to think there were likely civilian families on board her in addition to the Star Fleet crew.
Collin Freeman
2024-02-22 21:57:29 +0000 UTCCompletely with you on this one. It is a little better than average. One suggestion at around 11:50 edit out the Rosetta Stone comment for your youtube post. I have a feeling you will not want the mountain of comments you would get.
Prof Moff
2024-02-22 21:54:32 +0000 UTCDecent little sci-fi story. Sets up picards love of history and archeology
Scarpad’s Domain
2024-02-22 21:47:56 +0000 UTC40:32 Bingo!!!
Jovet
2024-02-22 21:47:20 +0000 UTCI thought this was one of the better episodes of the season.
Darin Wagner
2024-02-22 21:42:54 +0000 UTCMy bad.
Darin Wagner
2024-02-22 21:31:04 +0000 UTCNo
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-02-22 21:30:25 +0000 UTCThe Rosetta Stone was an groundbreaking archaeological artifact, an engraved plaque that contained the same text in three different languages at once that finally allowed ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to be translated for the first time. The company was named long after it.
JD Nevesytrof
2024-02-22 21:26:56 +0000 UTCHas Alex got DIP in his mouth?
Darin Wagner
2024-02-22 21:26:45 +0000 UTCDrinking glasses are way classier. But the "advertising" is a point, too!
Jovet
2024-02-22 21:07:28 +0000 UTC
