I’m Not A Star Trek Fan – Here’s What I Learned After Watching Patrick Stewart’s Best TNG Episodes – SlashFilm /Film

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I’m Not A Star Trek Fan – Here’s What I Learned After Watching Patrick Stewart’s Best TNG Episodes

I love my job and promise I’m qualified to do it, but sometimes, I have to admit that I, as the kids or Taylor Swift might say, don’t “know ball.” After admitting that I’d never seen “Jurassic Park” or ever sat down and watched “The Mummy,” I wrote about the experience of watching these gems for the first time right here at /Film, and across the board, I’m always excited to learn about some new corner of the pop culture world for the first time.

Then my editor asked me to watch “Star Trek.”

I need to be exceedingly clear: I don’t have any actual beef with the Star Trek universe, but I am a spiteful and deeply stubborn person who has been asked — begged, at times — to watch this show by some of its more passionate fans who have flitted in and out of my life. There came a point where I felt like proving some sort of inane point by not watching this show, even though my refusal to do so affects nobody and nothing anywhere in the world. Then, Sir Patrick Stewart died, and my lead editor asked if he could give me a list of five particularly fun Picard episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and I could write about them. I said yes, because despite my well-documented spite, I’d like to pay my respects to Stewart’s legacy. (A note! “Best of Both Worlds,” “Family,” and “Chain of Command” were only excluded from this list because they’re multi-part episodes.)

Some important context! I’ve never watched this show before. I don’t really know who most of the characters are, nor do I know what’s going on at most given moments. So what do I think of these handpicked Picard episodes of “Star Trek: TNG?” Let’s see.

The Measure of a Man
Maddox smirking with a frowning Picard behind him on Star Trek: The Next Generation
Paramount

I started with “The Measure of a Man,” a relatively somber Season 2 episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” that involves a legal, ethical, and moral dispute over whether the ship’s android guy Data (Brent Spiner) is a sentient being or the property of Starfleet, to be dismantled and studied. The whole thing progresses into a miniature legal drama where Captain Philippa Louvois (Amanda McBroom) has to oversee Data’s case and make a declaration one way or another. (Also, I love that this show goes out of its way to remind us, regularly, that Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard is way hot. Louvois is practically panting at him during most of their scenes.)

“The Measure of a Man” is a relatively somber treatise on what it means to possess a soul, artificial intelligence, and what can and should be sacrificed in the quest for more knowledge, but I really can’t stress this enough: it’s also the first Star Trek anything I’ve ever watched. With that in mind, I admittedly didn’t follow every single plot beat but instead paid close attention to Stewart’s performance, which is, obviously, outstanding. The way he approaches a world where the guy next to him is in full body paint as if it’s a Shakespearean drama is incredibly rad, but it also lends some gravity to the entire situation. (Get it? “Gravity.” The show’s about space! Nevermind.)

As news spread of Stewart’s passing, it became quite clear to me that he was a massively important actor for so many people thanks to the Star Trek franchise, and this episode was a perfect first introduction that helped me understand why. How could you not side with the guy arguing to save his friend?

The Drumhead
Picard looking angry on the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generatio
Paramount

“The Drumhead,” the second Patrick Stewart episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” that I turned on, is a tiny courtroom drama focused on an explosion on the Starship Enterprise that may or may not have been outright sabotage. After the arrival of retired rear admiral Norah Satie (Jean Simmons), the crew tries to officially get to the bottom of it, as Worf (Michael Dorn), a Klingon dude that I referred to as “the guy in a Chewbacca mask” to tick off one of my Trekkie coworkers for fun, reveals that his hilariously named fellow Klingon J’Dan (Henry Woronicz), is betraying them; it turns out he is, but he didn’t cause the explosion.

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