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Episode
233
Starship Mine
The Enterprise is due for a baryon sweep which means it’s the perfect time for the crew to get a little R&R. With no one minding the ship, it’s also the perfect time for a group of terrorists to steal a deadly compound from the engines. The one person they didn’t count on to thwart their plans, though, is Jean Luc Picard as Mot the Barber as John McClane.
Pass the Raisinettes, Starship Mine is next on Mission Log.
Die Hard in Space. 🙂 We get a peak at Movie action Picard in this episode
I sure hope they got the Dolphins and Picard’s fish off safely before the beam went through the ship.
More like “Under Siege” hahaha
There’s no good reason for this, I understand, but it pains me a little whenever someone compares this episode to Die Hard (cuz duh), but doesn’t call it “Die Hard Picard”. It’s poetry, it rolls off the tongue. It would be the most perfect tongue-in-cheek episode title ever.
I choose to take this evening (May the Fourth 2017) to bitch about this petty, if decades-old matter, instead about something much more profoundly meaningful. No offense intended.
It’s hardly Die Hard?
A personal favourite of mine. Love this episode. Finally a chance for Picard to ‘Kirk it up a bit’. As stated below definitley Die Hard on the Enterprise.
Love the crew interracting with the ‘boring’ guy too. This is a nearly perfect Trek episode for me.
And again another greeat Mission Log.
Thanks, Pete!
I felt the crew on the surface stuff was really weak..ugh..Data is just too OP to be believably caught unawares like this…
Yeah, Data’s always been a plot-breaker, but you gotta roll with the show sometimes. Fortunately, another of Data’s strengths is that Spiner has always been so good at overstated understated comedy. He’s priceless here. And then he goes puppy dog when he gets all lamentful. He attacks lovable from both directions, and it’s not even his episode.
It’s the contrast in quality I enjoy. As commented on by John & Ken. On the ship is really well done yet at the base is comically bad.
and why doesn’t Data have a phaser built in to one eye or something?
HUTCH!!
Dude is like Cliff and Norm with just a dash of Frasier all mushed together.
Have we had Picard and horseback riding prior to this?
If not, I wonder it was due to an early draft of “Generations” prompting them to plant a seed?
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Whenever they have those huge crawl spaces I can’t help but quote “Middleman” : “Nakatomi protocol”.
Brian
‘Pen Pals’ (second season) has a wonderful sequence of Picard in full equestrian regalia riding a horse on location.
Thnx!
It’s a truly shocking scene. Season 2 TNG, with a beautiful, well-written, meaningful scene, set in the Holodeck? I don’t blame you for forgetting; I forget that scene every time I even think of that episode. And it’s always my favorite part too. Because greenery. And horse. And Picard+Spiner.
Love this episode. It’s very TOS, with a relentless countdown to doom, the Enterprise in peril, and a captain outnumbered and lovin’ it!
Hutch, we hardly knew ya! Somewhere, Starsky weeps.
They were right. Any proper equestrian enthusiast has their own saddle. As a fellow rider, it always cracks me up that I spend the entire episode wondering what happened to his saddle and if he ever gets it back. All is right with my world when he does.
This is a good chance for Stewart to play an action hero.
We’ll get tired of that when we get to the movies
Preach, brother.
Here it works, because it’s a feature, not the whole point.
I’m a little bummed you didn’t make some sort of Mott/Harry’s connection comment after talking about Harry’s sponsorship of the show (i.e., “Do you think Mott uses Harry’s?”)
Heh heh – we’re sure he must use Harry’s!
My wife and I refer to Ensign Jae as Ensign Zuul because she reminds us of Zuul at the end of Ghostbusters.
Also she is very lovely.
One of my favorite moments of this episode are the looks and responses Troi gives Picard when he is explaining the need for his saddle. “I see.” “Of course.”
Loved the casual beard stroking by Riker…thank you for mentioning! Riker is playing it cool….and what does a cool man with a beard do when plotting an escape?? It’s all in the beard!!
And finally, I have watched a LOT of TNG and have seen this episode many times. How could I have missed the blanket covered body of Hutch??? I presumed he was dead since there was no tending to him after the blast. But I do have a theory as to why his blast resulted in death … someone took the opportunity to permanently end the small talk. Poor Hutch.
oh dang…I thought he was just stunned…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a4fc3a3a3155e281628b5f4f6d77fa44ba07196cac27804eadaf6fc98d8e17a.png
Not to complain, but I think THIS should be the picture for this Mission Log!! lol, Picard’s Vulcan nerve pinch? or something like that!!
Great pic! We had to grab something that would work at multiple sizes though – the resolution on this wasn’t quite up to snuff.
Yeah, it does seem a bit blurry….I think this episode is kinda like “Under Siege”- Steven Seagal…fun but holy cow..no fail safes regarding crew evacuating the ship…
Thoughts on the episode:
1. Having never seen Die Hard or Enemy Mine, I thought it was more like Home Alone.
2. The scene in the Arkaria Base would have made more sense if Troi used her telepathy to communicate with Riker.
3. When Riker asked how long can you talk about nothing, I said to myself “well there were 9 seasons of Seinfeld”.
A final few thoughts
1- I now know where DeAnna got her outfit color choice from https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/177dc8fc842c1fad09dba47d0f1fd2966be60ff1c13d0edafb299ba42c94ae66.jpg
2- It is interesting to see some actual consequences from traveling in space at High Warp. A bonus of the Baryon sweep is that it would find all of those pesky Space Cockroaches.
As an introvert: small talk is *indeed* the worst. Obviously the crew are not all introverts though, so what we are shown here w/ Hutch is that it isn’t just small talk but self-agrandizing talk. Basically, he’s a know it all show off and the small talk he engages in isn’t a two way conversation but a TED talk of useless information. Also – Geordi isn’t starving. Eating and constantly foraging at the food is a tactic to avoid small talk 🙂
Good insight about foraging to avoid small talk! He’s a smart one, that Geordi…
I like to think that Tim Russ’ character here is the under cover Tuvok, infiltrating the Maquis and he survived… but it’s likely the writers of Voyager took experience from his acting in this episode for part of his character, rather than them being the same character
I always get slightly annoyed when actor have more than one character in Trek. TNG S2 “Contagion” and S6 “Face of the Enemy” had the same Romulan I think….would have been nice to maintain a Romulan character as repeating…gonna check if S4 “Data’s Day” Romulan is the same one we just saw as prison warden in “Birthright”
yup….
Romulans played by Alan Scarfe
The episode of “Family Ties”, where actor David Spielberg makes a pass a his kids friend…Mallory. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d6ca6e029e4ff226b777e31b3361c16b3f22cafde64fee78fd855ab7ff89c699.jpg
“Commander Hutchinson” David Spielberg RIP 2016
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/177d91664272d2a2b0eba4dc36b6f641c792516097e782b3e8e5b68abc6f801f.jpg
Is he any relation to Steven?
Does anyone know if Picard puts sugar in his Earl Grey?
Baryon? I hardly knew ‘im!
Not much to add on this one. There’s hardly any subtext or nuance on show; what it’s about is all laid out on the table. I guess that’s fine once or twice per season…but it doesn’t leave a whole lot to think about afterward.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c7e88033b03610e65049864896bbdae0a9249add018a1bce55f6554c17bf7a40.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b3648af22920bac90c9f70a613eb1e80f7a6a5cedcb38f30debf226e02b07ed.jpg
Ok. No I need will confuse this with a real die hard movie though. I wonder if people caught the contradiction Data used….