The Enterprise is assigned to ferry two quarreling sets of delegates to a mutual location. Already a difficult task for the diplomacy ship, Picard and crew must cater to their unruly guests while also tracking down a strange energy entity possessing the minds of crew members. The invasive lightening bolt originated from a passing energy … More Bolt of Enlightenment, TNG: S1E7 “Lonely Among Us”
Many are familiar with Jehovah’s Witnesses and other brands of zealous door to door evangelism. Aside from their recruitment practices, Jehovah’s Witnesses are most well known for their refusal to accept blood transfusions. Their beliefs interpret that ‘life’, or the soul, is in the blood. Modern blood transfusions have saved numerous lives, but are they … More Lifeblood, TAS: S1E6 “The Survivor”
Kirk crew are once again inundated with tribbles in this sequel to the classic Original Series episode “Trouble with Tribbles”. On their way to deliver a new seed grain, quintotriticale, to the starving population on Sherman’s Planet, the last thing the Enterprise needs is more tribbles. However, the prolific fuzzy space pet once again resurfaced … More Additional Division, TAS: S1E5 “More Tribbles, More Tribbles”
Since their first literary appearance in Homer’s Odyssey, sirens have been luring men astray with their deadly voices in many a pop fiction. Homer and his crew were forced to float passed the singing snare, but Kirk and his band of space sailors were sent to the doomed site intentionally. While investigating the mysterious disappearance … More Siren Songs in Space, TAS: S1E4 “The Lorelei Signal”
A strange new guest, calling himself the ‘Traveler’, arrives on the Enterprise, along with a propulsion expert named Mr. Kosinski. Both were brought aboard to help improve warp engine efficiency. Kosinski has an inflated ego, and Riker is suspicious of him from the start. The first officer claims that Kosinski was only so successful on … More Unreal Machine, TNG: S1E6 “Where No One Has Gone Before”
The Federation makes first contact with the Ferengi in this little side adventure. Although they grow into a slightly more complex and nuanced race in later seasons, the first appearance of these big-eared aliens portrays them as completely snivelly and back-stabby. One reason for this is because as the Next Generation sought to differentiate itself … More Trade and Value, TNG: S1E5 “The Last Outpost”
Culture is a complex dance between the preservation of tradition, predictable communication, and the regulation of emotions. For example, mutual social understanding of what is expected within a specific situation can help people communicate without speaking, thereby saving them from having to say something potentially hurtful. Cultural norms keep people civilized and regulate behavior. They … More First One to Die, TNG: S1E4 “Code of Honor”
A planet eating space blob terrorizes the galaxy and the Enterprise must intercept it before it reaches a densely populated Federation colony. Comprising an unusual combination of matter and energy, the deadly space cloud at first appears to be some natural formation with an undesirable planet-destroying effect. Without much evidence, Spock concludes that the mass … More Tornado, Amoeba, Brain TAS: S1E3 “One of Our Planets is Missing”
Of all the schools of thought which paint the landscape of psychology as a field, few command as much internet attention as personality theory. Whether your unique existential experience happens to be identical to that of a Disney princess, or if it can be summarized by a series of letters flanking a sliding scale, your … More Overexposure, TNG: S1E3 “The Naked Now”
It is fitting that the second episode of The Animated Series is considered to be the best of this Star Trek iteration, as it is an homage to the greatest episode of the Original Series, “The City on the Edge of Forever”. We see the same all-knowing sentient time portal, the Guardian of Forever, which … More Pain or Logic, TAS: S1E2 “Yesteryear”
Hopeless Trekkie 