UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek TNG S2E10 - The Dauphin
Added 2024-02-16 15:00:12 +0000 UTC
Comments
It's funny that you call this episode forgettable. I couldn't remember anything about this episode and I've watched the show several times, although it's been at least 10 years since I saw season 2.
Kobaian Vagabond
2025-05-27 01:47:06 +0000 UTCAlways a very "meh" episode for me. I don't hate it, but I'm just not really interested in it. Wesley is 17 here(Wheaton 16), so I guess he comes across a little more clueless than he should, but as you said we've all been there at some point. Without a doubt the best scenes were Riker and Guinan flirting, and Worf's dating advice. Loved Guinan's "shut up kid", like it's the most action she's seen in years. Worf getting kind of lost in the moment was also pretty funny. Also the guy behind him is just doing his thing when Worf is screaming like it's just another day on the bridge. I do appreciate how Picard handled telling Wesley to stay away from Salia. He didn't chew him out or embarrass him, he just explained the situation professionally. Good leadership. Regarding Riker's claim that a terawatt is more energy than the Enterprise puts out, some have speculated that he was referring to the ship's communication alone, since later episodes give power generating stats several orders of magnitude above that.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-07-10 23:17:30 +0000 UTCI stand corrected!
Anthony Bernacchi
2024-02-19 14:11:06 +0000 UTCI’ve always sentimentally loved this episode. Young love, looking back, is always ridiculous to our adult selves. But at the time, heartbreak is devastating. And monsters being a metaphor for puberty is common in SciFi and Fantasy.
Sharron
2024-02-19 14:02:17 +0000 UTCIt is true that women couldn't succeed on the throne in France. But the title "Dauphine" was used for the bride of the crown prince, his future wife and queen. I wrote about the example of Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria who became Queen Marie-Antoinette of France - the one who was beheaded by the Guillotine at behast of the French Revolution - above.
Sam Langanke
2024-02-19 10:15:26 +0000 UTCPersonally, I totally can understand the notion of love at first sight. The "gut" knows things faster than the mind sometimes. I think my current relationship is probably kind-of like that, even. But, as Wesley's first "thing"... it's a very contrived and weak story. And hardly believable, at least by me. At least Wesley isn't perfect after all, I suppose?
Jovet
2024-02-17 16:01:36 +0000 UTCYou're not supposed to notice that! LOL!
Jovet
2024-02-17 15:56:11 +0000 UTCYeah, I found it much more cringy to watch when I was younger, until THAT happened! LOL!
Jovet
2024-02-17 15:54:43 +0000 UTC“Dauphin,” the French word for “dolphin,” was the traditional title of the heir to the King of France. The feminine form of the word is “Dauphine,” and therefore fans sometimes complain that this episode should have been called “The Dauphine.” However, “Dauphine” was never used as a royal title in France because women could not succeed to the throne due to the so-called “Salic law.” In modern English, “Dauphin” is pronounced the same way as in French: “doe-fahn,” with equal stress on both syllables. In Shakespeare’s time, however, English people pronounced the word “DAW-fin,” like “dolphin” without the “l”. Modern Shakespearean performers tend to pronounce the word the French way so as not to sound ignorant of French, even though this prevents some lines from scanning properly, e.g. “And some are yet ungotten and unborn / That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn” ("Henry V," Act I, Scene II). Salia’s planet is named Daled Four. “Daled” is the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, so the planet’s name literally means “D Four.” According to IMDb, some fans have nicknamed the episode “Wesley Reaches Puberty,” but, given the name of the planet, I think an even more appropriate nickname would be the title of a 1994 TV movie: "Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love." Jonathan Frakes and Whoopi Goldberg’s chemistry in the mock flirting scene is amazing. Wil Wheaton performed the first on-screen kiss of his career in this episode with Jaime Hubbard, who is ten years Wheaton’s senior. Hubbard would retire from acting six years later and is now a licensed psychotherapist. In later years, Wheaton would comment, “The first girl that Wesley fell in love with turned out to be a shape-shifter who turned into a hideous monster, y’know after he had exposed his soul to her. Which happened to me a lot in my personal life. And I was glad Star Trek was able to capture that parallel.” Actress Mädchen Amick, a runner-up for the role of Salia, plays Anya’s teenage girl form; she went on to great success two years later in a starring role on the surreal prime-time drama "Twin Peaks." Not much else to say about this one, except that it is much better than I remembered, and that, as you speculated, it would have benefited from a different placement in the season. Anya and Salia’s farewell scene is heartbreaking, especially considering that Salia will now be cut off from literally every single person she has ever met, but its emotional impact pales in comparison to the previous episode.
Anthony Bernacchi
2024-02-17 15:42:44 +0000 UTCWesley always stars in simple, sentimental, sincere stories. This was fine and I could see kids liking this.
Ken R
2024-02-17 10:14:22 +0000 UTCEven though this ep may have not been everyone favorite you have to admit the writing is several notches above the firdtcseason
Scarpad’s Domain
2024-02-17 02:05:18 +0000 UTCI still remember in detail how it happend for me. It was on a busy train station and when I saw her all the hundreds of people around vanished off my sight. Literally! Never thought that can be possible. But it can.
Sam Langanke
2024-02-17 02:05:01 +0000 UTCBecause a transporter beam is much stronger than a communication signal.
Patrick47
2024-02-17 00:43:14 +0000 UTCTo be honest also, I find it a bit funny when younger people look at this and go "he only knew her for a day, how can he say he loves her" but then think love can be found on an app... Yes love at first sight is a thing and it's the most magical feeling you can possibly share with a person.
Andreas Schmitt
2024-02-17 00:14:03 +0000 UTCShe said back in 1988 that she was actually already retired and living with her husband in the mountains when Gene asked her to come back to Star Trek. It seemed to me she was only doing Gene a favor, I don't know why so many people are down on her because of it.
tyranusfan
2024-02-17 00:04:17 +0000 UTC"Dauphin" is french for dolphin and was the title given to the heir to the throne back when France was a monarchy.
Regan
2024-02-16 23:51:48 +0000 UTCThis is indeed an early morph effect... actually in the remastered this is a recreation of the early morph effect. These remastered shows really do try to preserve the look of the original FX.
Mike Rogers
2024-02-16 23:48:16 +0000 UTCOn the original Lost In Space Jonathan Harris was on every episode except for the pilot and was always listed as special guest star. I suppose the billing has something to do with how much they get paid.
Mike Rogers
2024-02-16 23:37:07 +0000 UTCAlex I loved your mini rant about Muldaur :P
Captain Proton
2024-02-16 23:07:51 +0000 UTCGood point. I once did fall in love at first sight. And it had no happy ending as well. Kind of the same reason. We were too different for a longterm relationship. I feel with Wesley. Wish I just had "the next episode" to total forget about it. It took me years to overcome it and I never experienced love at first sight again. Which was the most magical thing I ever lived through emotionally. Saying that as a guy who tends to logic.
Sam Langanke
2024-02-16 23:03:07 +0000 UTCI know! When I read the comment, I think the person even said something like "I don't know if this is true/I heard a rumor" but they just went full-on believing it! 😂 People really like complaining about Pulaski & even saying mean things about Muldaur sometimes purely because they don't like Pulaski (like making fun of her age) so.. I'm not super surprised. 🤷🏻♀️ Even if it were true, I don't see a problem with it personally.
Lady Beyond The Wall
2024-02-16 22:59:12 +0000 UTCGuys, Muldaur was offered a spot in the main credits list and she declined. The *producers* listed her as a special guest star instead. That's a big difference from "she demanded a special credit."
tyranusfan
2024-02-16 22:23:31 +0000 UTCI would have taken a little B-plot for Worf over the shape-shifting stuff anytime
DataDroid
2024-02-16 22:15:22 +0000 UTCMadchen Amick is 🔥 she still is at 40 something! I like to joke that Anya stayed behind to fuck Worf, hopefully as Madchen Amick. 😆
Philbot
2024-02-16 22:12:23 +0000 UTCWes had a few good episodes this one was meh
Scarpad’s Domain
2024-02-16 21:57:01 +0000 UTCThey try so very very hard to make a good Wesley episode. But there is an old Scottish saying....... You can't polish a turd...... and the episode is bad too. Okay not Scottish quoting the movie Christine but still
Prof Moff
2024-02-16 21:15:45 +0000 UTCWorf needs to break out a blade and then let's see her rumble
StonyD
2024-02-16 21:07:13 +0000 UTC.....yes.
StonyD
2024-02-16 21:06:31 +0000 UTCMaybe it's me being from a different time. But I am honestly surprised how cynical everybody is nowadays about love at first sight. And yes it is real love. I know plenty of couples who fell in love exactly like this and have been together for decades, never been with anybody else nor wanted to. Makes me happy I grew up when I did and not in the modern world where dating and love is so cynical and taken apart. I'm a romantic at heart and I found this episode very sweet
Andreas Schmitt
2024-02-16 20:45:09 +0000 UTCI bought some Fireball to join in because I knew this episode was coming. It's... I think overall I actually like it? But it gives me a headache. It's an odd one.
John Deadcorn
2024-02-16 20:25:11 +0000 UTCThe old lady changeling acting like they couldn't just beam her into space if it need be (unless she somehow could disrupt transport).
Greg Quinn
2024-02-16 20:05:40 +0000 UTCSo if the atmosphere of these planets is so dense that audio communications can barely get through, how is it a transporter beam with humanoid molecules can make it through?
Collin Freeman
2024-02-16 20:01:58 +0000 UTCYay, Shelly Johnson.
Mel Primus
2024-02-16 19:39:11 +0000 UTC😂 Yeah, even if I like this episode more than I used to when I was younger, THAT part definitely gives me some major secondhand embarrassment!
Lady Beyond The Wall
2024-02-16 19:33:04 +0000 UTCWell thanks for not being a jerk about it. :) I mean, I have my reasons for liking it. And I do understand why others would definitely not like it. We can talk more about it when it comes up though! Saying any more would be too spoilery.
Lady Beyond The Wall
2024-02-16 19:30:37 +0000 UTCWell, I'm not going to say anyone who likes something is wrong (because we like what we like and it's not right or wrong to do so), but there was a BBC TV comedy series (The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin) which cleverly subverted the standard 'Oirish' character trope. Perrin is determined to create a business that he wants to inevitably fail. He calls it 'Grot'. He hires an Irish builder to be the managing director. Only problem for Perrin is that this Irishman turns out to be a genius businessman. He also reveals to Perrin that he has enough insight into Perrin's psychology to have shrewdly determined Perrin's true intentions.
Numinous2019
2024-02-16 19:23:00 +0000 UTC@Jovet YES! I found someone else who likes that episode! 😂 It's also one of my mom's favorites and she's the one who got me into TNG. When I was younger in the 90's, TNG would come on at the same time as new episodes of The Simpsons (and those were the good Simpsons seasons!) so we'd have to wait to see if TNG was playing a rerun and if it was, we got to watch The Simpsons. If not, we watched TNG. I didn't appreciate it for another ~10 years or so after that though.
Lady Beyond The Wall
2024-02-16 19:00:47 +0000 UTC@Numinous2019 I like that episode. And I'm, like, half Irish (American). haha
Jovet
2024-02-16 18:41:10 +0000 UTCTwin Peaks is a masterpiece. Full stop.
Ca$hWednesday
2024-02-16 18:40:32 +0000 UTCTwin Peaks the return is a cinematic masterpiece!
Stephen Wright
2024-02-16 18:26:14 +0000 UTCI'm pretty sure those beings don't have a sex. Just a pretty face, could seem male while in Ewok mode—we'd never know.
Jovet
2024-02-16 18:19:46 +0000 UTCI think they had to have the shapeshifting thing to give Worf something to think about.
Jovet
2024-02-16 18:18:20 +0000 UTCWesley left the transporter room to go to a massage parlor on Deck 13?
Jovet
2024-02-16 18:17:15 +0000 UTCPicard is supposed to be a french man. So it is quite embarassing that the french title of the episode is spelled wrong. "Le Dauphin" was the MALE heir of the throne when France was a monarchy. The female was called "La Dauphine". Just a letter is different, can't change much? Wrong again. Dauphin sounds like dough-fur. But Dauphine sounds like dough-finn. Fun fact: I learned this already in elementary school although I never learned french. Because the school was near Dauphine Road which was named after Queen Marie-Antoinette of France. The street had been built deliberateley for her and her entourage when she travelled through the town from Vienna to her wedding in Paris. So she was the Daupine then. Even my hometown spelled it wrong on the street signs for decades. Just like Star Trek
Sam Langanke
2024-02-16 18:01:16 +0000 UTCThis episode is like a 6 at best. I completely forgot Madchen Amick was in this episode though so that makes it an immediate 10/10 for me. (Twin Peaks is awesome by the way).
Ca$hWednesday
2024-02-16 17:53:33 +0000 UTCI'd class an upcoming episode as a runaway nuclear core meltdown.....given that I'm Irish, I'm sure you can guess why.
Numinous2019
2024-02-16 17:50:54 +0000 UTCGreat comment. Thank you for providing those reflections.
Numinous2019
2024-02-16 17:47:47 +0000 UTCI try to make sure I separate Wil Wheaton from Wesley precisely because I personally don't like Wil as a person (and as I always say, as much as I can from not knowing him personally). I do the same with Whoopi and Guinan, because I love Guinan but not Whoopi. Wesley doesn't bother me as much as he does others though. :)
Lady Beyond The Wall
2024-02-16 16:30:28 +0000 UTCJust thinking out loud here, don't mind me^^ ... Data says that one side of Daled IV is constantly dark, the other is constantly light. So it makes sense that Salia's true form is this light being. I can imagine both that these beings either live on the light side or live on the dark side and thus illuminating it - which creates a beautiful picture in my mind. The whole shapeshifter-thing is unnecessary. It would have been more interesting to give these two cultures that live in such contrasting environments specific properties (light beings .. and whatever makes sense for the others ... perhaps something as simple as shadow beings). And then show more of the challenge why it is difficult for them to actually live together or rather why there's war. Perhaps the beings on the dark side used to be light beings, too, but since they have to live on the dark side of the planet their light is defunct and they're fighting to live on the light side again. Kinda interesting to think about what that world might look like.
DataDroid
2024-02-16 16:23:08 +0000 UTC....and there's the Happy Ending!
Stephen Wright
2024-02-16 16:10:56 +0000 UTC"Do not be fooled by her looks. The body is just a shell." -Worf That was nice forshadowing
DataDroid
2024-02-16 16:04:52 +0000 UTC41:50 "It is mushroom flavored!!"
Jovet
2024-02-16 15:46:30 +0000 UTC40:32 Oh gee, I totally forgot about the "I loved you!" "I love you too!" part... ugh
Jovet
2024-02-16 15:45:26 +0000 UTCThey are supposedly allasomorphs.
Jovet
2024-02-16 15:40:41 +0000 UTCHoo boy, here we go. A whole lot of what we like to call filler. This is one of those episodes. The only scene I really care for is Worf and Wesley, and the natural charisma between Guinan and Riker is great.
Steven Johnson
2024-02-16 15:32:50 +0000 UTCHe's a huge corporate yes-man these days.
Steven Johnson
2024-02-16 15:32:10 +0000 UTCRe: actor title cards. There are whole lawsuits over such things. I know from podcasts that some Voyager actors would get annoyed if their title card was on a part of the opening credits not sufficiently pretty.
John M.
2024-02-16 15:30:20 +0000 UTCImportant for people to separate Wil from Wesley when complaining about the character and there are times to complain. Will has had some tough times and seems like a great guy.
AzoriusMage
2024-02-16 15:15:13 +0000 UTCA fun episode..not the highs of “The Measure of a Man” but not the magma that is “Code of Honor”. It wouldn’t be nearly as watchable if I didn’t like Will Wheaton.
Glenn Johnson Barnes
2024-02-16 15:09:57 +0000 UTCQapla'
AzoriusMage
2024-02-16 15:03:48 +0000 UTC
