The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From rhea on 2008-04-27 at 4:35pm:
  I am with you on that estimation. Fine fine episode. Prime examle for an episode that tells a great story without even much of a plot or huge effects, just by picking, if you will, two great minds locked in combat. yay.
• From Nadav on 2008-08-27 at 9:08am:
  I was much less enthusiastic about this episode, because frankly, much of the story sounded inconsistent, and even non-sensical, to me.
  
  The first thing that didn't make much sense was the description of the earth-romulan war, which supposedly was thought without either side seeing each other. Ahh??? This makes absolutely no sense. I can understand how in a specific battle which was fought with long-distance weapons the sides didn't see each other, but the whole war? And how was the ceasefire treaty signed without communication? And if communication was possible, wasn't it natural to also have visual communication? Also, didn't the Vulcans know who the Romulans are? I find this very strange, to say the least.
  
  The second thing is that indeed, the battle on this episodes feels like a submarine battle, without any reason. The plasma bomb the Romulans used is cool, but why not use a more conventional ship-to-ship weapon against the enterprise? Isn't it strange that Enterprise shot so many sucessful phaser shots against the invisible Rumulan ship, and the Romulans did not shoot more at the fully visible Enterprise? And isn't it strange that the Romulans have such advanced technology (like cloaking and that astroid-destroying weapon) but couldn't get the basic stuff (like a normal anti-ship weapon, and speed, for god's sake) right?
• From Kethinov on 2008-08-31 at 6:29pm:
  I couldn't disagree more.
  
  The Earth/Romulan war being fought without either side seeing each other is entirely plausible. To see how that might have been accomplished, watch Ent: Minefield, Ent: Babel One, Ent: United, and Ent: The Aenar. The recurring theme is that the Romulans did not want the Vulcans to discover their linked heritage.
  
  Moreover, there wasn't "no communication." There was plenty of audio communication. Again, the Romulans didn't want visual communications so as not to reveal to the Vulcans their linked heritage.
  
  Regarding the plasma bomb, it was obviously an experimental weapon. It's possible that other weapons had to be removed to equip their ship with it.
• From TashaFan on 2008-09-10 at 1:20am:
  It's like a submarine story because, like a sub, the Romulan can disappear from the sight of the Enterprise. Like a sub, the Romulan ship is slower, it relies on stealth not speed. Like a sub, it appears for a moment when it launches it's torpedo. If it misses, it has to try to evade the depth charges (phasers, although the episode mistakenly uses the photon torpedo visual effect, which is more like a depth charge in a way). The resemblance is intentional and, in my opinion, well done.
• From 411314 on 2009-06-16 at 12:04am:
  I found this episode disapointing. For the most part, it's just Romulans shooting at our heroes and the heroes shooting back. More characterization and less shooting would've been better. The only interesting parts were Spock explaining why he thought the Enterprise should attack the Roumulans and the crew member who was rascist against Spock. The woman who almost got married was nice eye candy, though.
• From zook on 2009-07-06 at 7:24am:
  Another factoid: the Romulan Commander is played by the wonderful Mark Lenard, who went on to play Sarek, Spock's father.
• From Arianwen on 2010-07-18 at 11:12pm:
  This is definitely one of my favourite episodes, although I was slightly irritated by the antique-speak aboard the Romulan vessel; they sounded like they were quoting from a book. But despite that I still find it dramatic and entertaining, with plenty of stuff happening - I have to disagree with 411314, all the shooting was just background to the "will they/won't they/will they start a war" theme.
  
  Lots of little scenes to enjoy as well; my favourite is Spock completely destroying the soppy moment where Stiles thanks him for rescuing him.
• From Mike Meares on 2012-03-23 at 1:04am:
  I totally agree with Kethinov that “The Balance of Terror” was indeed “the best episode of all of TOS.” And his review was very thought provoking and helped to deepen my understanding of the story. Excellent review!
  
  I would only add another comment about the significance of this episode. And that is the question of racial bigotry. The way it is dealt with in this episode is so great. I kind of wish more episodes had dealt with race relations in the future. I really think it is a little naïve of us to think racism will be non-existent in the future. Especially when you consider all the alien races we will encounter and how “earth men” will think of themselves as superior.
  
  The look on some of the Enterprise crew’s faces as they see Spock in a new light is priceless. I loved the doubt in their faces. It told a whole story without anyone saying a word.
  
  And more importantly, how Captain Kirk, the earth man, deals with the defeat of the Romulans, another race. Some aboard the Enterprise would have leveled the Romulan ship until it was completely destroyed ( hmmmmm does this remind you of Star Trek 2009? ).
  
  However, Captain Kirk doesn’t do this. Instead, He chooses to offer a helping hand to the Romulans. This demonstrated a part of Kirk’s strong character not always seen in later Star Trek episodes and movies. I always admired the ealier Kirk’s stance on the words “to seek out new life” and what those high sounding words really meant.
  
  And kudos on the acting of Mark Lenard! He really bought the Romulan character to life.
  
  I just had a couple of nipicks ( don’t I always? LOL ) on an otherwise perfect episode. I only noticed them after watching the episode for the 1,000th time.
  
  The first was when the Captain enters the chapel and Dr. McCoy says to Kirk, “Call for you from the bridge.” That seemed a little odd to me since the bridge can send out a page to the Captain thoughout the whole ship. Couldn’t the Captain have spoken to the bridge just before he entered the Chapel in the corridor?
  
  Also, when the Romulans enter the comet’s tail the Romulan Commander clearly says the comet’s “many particles will obscure their sensing device”. But a moment later he is surprised at the fact that the Enterprise is no longer showing on the Romulans sensing device. Wouldn’t the Romulans sensing device also be obscured by the comet’s many particles ?
  
  
• From Alan Feldman on 2012-09-02 at 8:00pm:
  BALANCE OF TERROR
  
  This episode well executed and is very engaging. The music goes very well with what we see. And it's fun to see each side debate, plan, execute their moves, etc. Also, just like "The Cage", there's a lot of stuff squeezed into the allotted 50 minutes -- that is, little or no filler. You never have to wait for something interesting to happen.
  
  However, I have these comments and questions:
  
  How can we still see anything from Outpost 4 after it's been destroyed? Any cameras and transmitters would have been destroyed along with it. Yet we clearly see the Romulan ship, watch it vanish, this time with the stars moving -- all *after* the asteroid has been destroyed.
  
  Furthermore, how can the Enterprise crew have seen anything at all?
  I would think that the first plasma salvo would have destroyed any surface cameras and transmitters. Look what happened to the command post 1 mile deep! And some surface equipment is going to survive? I don't think so.
  
  A fun scene, even though it's not possible.
  
  Along a similar vein, why does the picture from the Romulan ship fade out when it blows up? Being an explosion -- nuclear, no less -- you'd think it would be an abrupt cutoff. So how can we have a fade-out and enough time for the Romulan commander to fall?
  
  Comets don't have tails out in deep space. They have to be near a star. It looks pretty cool, though, and the music for it was well chosen. But why did they wait until they got out of the comet? Weren't they supposed to see the bird of prey in the comet?
  
  As to the cloaking device: What's lighting up the ships in the first place? Can they see the relatively tiny ships at fantastic distances lit up only by distant stars? I'm not sure it's possible to construct a telescope big enough, yet small enough to be on the Enterprise, that has sufficient light-gathering power and resolution. If so, why the need for the cloaking device?
  
  How did the Enterprise get a candid video of the Romulan bridge? Decius sent a message informing the "Praetor" of their "glorious mission" (in the other direction, no less) -- not a closeup of the Romulan commander in thought. It's worth going with this, though -- just to see the reactions on our heroes' faces.
  
  Don't the Romulans have phasers or the like? All they have is the cloaking device, impulse engines, the plasma weapon, and a really cramped bridge?
  
  Can't the Enterprise duck the incoming plasma ball? I guess the plasma ball is a heat-seeking weapon. Even so, it seems worth a try.
  
  Don't they have seat belts?
  
  During the last battle, the Romulan ship becomes visible in order to fire its weapon. Kirk gives the order to fire, but the phasers are inoperable due to the coolant leak knocking out the operators. It takes a while for Spock to run down the hall and press a few buttons to save the day. What in blazes are the Romulans waiting for during all this? They had about 35 seconds to fire their weapon! I guess their weapon malfunctioned too. But if it did, it should have been shown.
  
  Why can't the phasers be fired from the bridge? In which case, why is the phaser "control circuit" located on the bridge?
  
  Speaking of phasers, they repeatedly fire the luckiest shots. ". . . the wildest stroke of luck," as Stiles puts it. Kirk's not a "sorcerer", just incredibly lucky -- for this, anyway. On the other hand, the Romulans had an incredibly lucky shot with their "nuclear device of some kind". Or is it standard procedure for starships to go through debris? Note also that it detonated only 100 m away. A nuclear explosion at 100 m and the Enterprise survives? Those are some shields!
  
  Hmmm. A couple of rounds of phaser shots and the phaser control circuit overloads. They must have been using aluminum wiring. And then after a few more rounds Spock has to work on the transfer coil again! What are these, bargain basement phasers?
  
  Why do the ships tilt when damaged? There's no up and down in deep space.
  
  I can see radio contact without video. Video takes *a_lot* more bandwidth. It's sort of like Morse code being able to work where audio can't due to noise or distance.
  
  What's with the "play dead" game? If the Romulans can pick up Spock accidentally turning on something on his dashboard, why can't they detect the ship while they're still turning everything off (except the gravity, of course)?
  
  The ships at this stage are "motionless". Motionless relative to what? so the motion sensors pick up only motion relative to the galaxy? How does that work?
  
  Why didn't Spock save Tomlinson? I hope it was because he was already dead. Spock often seems to care more about other sentient life forms in other episodes -- like the cavemen in "The Galileo Seven", and the Horta in "The Devil in the Dark" -- and even expressed regrets about destroying Nomad and shutting down the M5. I prefer to think that Tomlinson was dead by the time Spock got there. In fact, Stiles is still moving while Tomlinson is lying motionless. But do we need to wrap up the bigotry bit somehow, I suppose.
  
  AEF
• From zerothis on 2012-09-22 at 2:33am:
  
  I think a remarkable scenes is when Spock accidentally breaks stealth by grabbing at his station to lift himself up. This is keeping with a perhaps coincidental theme where one of Spocks hands, perhaps subconsciously motivate, does something irrational that turns out to be beneficial (Like in Galileo 7 when he dumped and ignited the shuttle's remaining fuel)
  
  Seat belts, lol, a consistent oversight in all Trek incarnations. Second only to lack of the need for toilets (ST5 exceptionish noted).
  
  I like to think the addition of a visual signal on the Romulan ship that can be tapped into would be due to Tal Shiar (Yes, cannon does establishes it predates the Federation) wanting to make it easy to spy on their soldiers. Its there unbeknownst to the Romulan captain and crew, and made easy to use for the Tal Shiar (and unfortunately and unforeseen of them, easy for the Federation to use also).
  
  The submarine parallels and the logic of similarity between space and undersea vessels were obvious to me the first time I saw this episode. The similarity between sea-surface and space vessels is in language only, similarities are comparatively few. In fact, in ST2:ROK, Khan's mistaken thinking on this very point is fatal.
  
• From Glenn239 on 2012-12-06 at 1:56pm:
  ‘10’. It feels like a submarine story because it was adapted from one. This is one of the few episodes which takes a more technical approach to creating drama by way of the interplay of balanced (but asymmetrical) ship systems and commands. This episode also stands out for creating its dramatic tension almost exclusively from the scientific-technical elements inherent to the show’s premise. Too often Star Trek relied on some cheap gimmick, such as Godlike powers or the latest group of clowns to take over the ship, to eliminate some of the technical premises of the Star Trek world. This one stands out, along with one like the Cloud Minders, as taking special effort to avoid that narrative clique. It is also a highlight showing why episodes including the Klingons or Romulans seemed to have a ‘natural’ bump in quality..
• From Rick on 2014-08-27 at 12:52am:
  At Alan Feldman:
  
  I will show you how pretty much everyone of your "problems" isnt one:
  
  1. maybe this camera is not actually on the asteroid but was orbiting it. That would certainly be practical and make a whole lot of sense.
  
  2. same as 1
  
  3. maybe the initial explosion was not nuclear.
  
  4. i never heard any character say that they were not near a star.
  
  5. im sure 200 years from now they can build quite advanced sensors that could fit on a ship. hardly a problem that they couldnt build one now.
  
  6. great response to this question from an above poster about the tal shiar.
  
  7. Spock covers this problem when describing the power cost of the cloaking device.
  
  8. you answered this question yourself.
  
  9. both ships are heavily damaged as you stated and the romulans were already stated to be very low on power so it probably took them longer to fire their weapon. Additionally, the Romulans may have been complacent thinking the Enterprise was defenseless (like they stated, "at our mercy.")
  
  10. they got lucky...
  
  11. they got unlucky... (sometimes things go right and sometimes they dont, hardly a problem that kirk fired lucky shots and that the weapons malfunctioned)
  
  12. the ship tilts because it just got hit by a nuclear weapon (lots of force). that is obvious, and i dont understand your objection. any loss of balance or changing perspective for the actual people can be explained by gravity plating not functioning correctly...... when hit with a frickin nuclear weapon.
  
  13. the play dead game is a very real thing for submarine battles. Why cant the same be true in this situation?
  
  14. motionless relative to each other. come on, that was easy, you didnt try very hard on that problem. perfect example of fishing for problems where they dont exist.
  
  15. you answered this yourself.
• From Alan Feldman on 2014-11-26 at 5:18pm:
  At Rick about his 2014-08-27 at 12:52am post:
  
  "I will show you how pretty much everyone of your "problems" isnt one:"
  
  First of all, there's no need to be hostile. Second, you need to fix your Shift keys. Third, your lack of quoting makes parts of your post hard to follow. Even a few snippets of quoting here and there or a few contextual clues, which would have taken very little effort on your part, would have helped. OK, here's my rebuttal.
  
  1. maybe this camera is not actually on the asteroid but was orbiting it. That would certainly be practical and make a whole lot of sense. 2. same as 1"
  
  The fireball is coming straight at the camera. It fills the frame, meaning your satellite camera is directly between the ship and the asteroid, which means it would have been destroyed. No, I don't believe your satellite camera could somehow survive being enveloped by the plasma ball. Even if it did, I don't see how it could survive an asteroid underneath it being pulverized. And there _are_ problems with the idea of an orbiting camera.
  
  If the camera is in orbit around the asteroid, how does it get a radio signal through a mile of almost solid iron? Iron is conductive, which makes matters even worse! ELF is needed just to get to our submarines here on Earth. There's precious little bandwidth with ELF, so forget video. And iron is eight times as dense as water.
  
  A long-term stable orbit might well be difficult to achieve: Asteroids are very small, so their gravitational fields are very weak. They are irregular in shape, meaning the field will not be spherically symmetric. Furthermore, they are rotating, meaning the gravitational field will vary in time.
  
  Another problem: We see the bright flashing from the control room for too long. The camera there would probably have been destroyed too soon to see most, if any, of that.
  
  Yet another problem: When the Romulan ship first becomes visible, the stars are not moving. When it vanishes, the stars are moving as if the Bird of Prey were moving backwards at warp speed (and on impulse power!). Did your satellite camera, showing us this, assuming it somehow survived, also go into warp drive to follow the ship? Strangely, when the Romulan ship disappears, there is no break in the view of the moving stars. It's as if the shot of the fading ship were superimposed on the star field the Enterprise was flying through at the time, which also makes no sense.
  
  3. maybe the initial explosion was not nuclear.
  
  Maybe the Romulans just like to make some thermite fireworks before self-destruction.
  
  It was a rather long initial "explosion" -- about 8 seconds, in fact. And the picture fades out with the bridge still intact, so the nuke couldn't have gone off even then. While it does take an initial explosion to set off a nuke, it can't take 8 seconds. Actually, it was just a lot of flashing light and noise for effect. Some explosion. And why the fade-out? Don't you think if a nuke destroyed the ship the broadcast would just abruptly end? Why would anyone even expect a fade-out instead?
  
  4. i never heard any character say that they were not near a star.
  
  No one said the comet was not in the Andromeda galaxy, either. But I think it's a safe bet that it wasn't. The same goes for the comet not being near a star. Notice that there are stars zooming by when we see the comet. This would not happen if the comet were near a star. Besides, why would Spock mention just a comet if they were heading through a solar system? The comet would be only a very tiny part of it. And its sun would light up the Bird of Prey, causing the cloaking device to tax the ship's power source even more, which is clearly not in the Romulans' interest.
  
  And comets don't come in flashing colors. In fact, the earth passed right through the tail of Halley's Comet in 1910 and no one saw anything from that. A comet's tail is quite tenuous. See http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/12/science/space/rosetta-philae-comet-landing.html?ref=space for another example.
  
  5. im sure 200 years from now they can build quite advanced sensors that could fit on a ship. hardly a problem that they couldnt build one now.
  
  A totally unsupported statement. We're talking about seeing an extremely dark, relatively extremely tiny ship at an incredibly enormous distance. We can _barely_ measure the sizes of nearby humongous stars.
  
  One of those stars is Betelgeuse. It angular diameter is roughly 0.055" (with a large uncertainty), which is approx. 3x10^-7 radians. If our Bird of Prey is 100 m wide and 100,000,000 km away, its angular size would be 10^-9 radians, which is a factor of 300 smaller. Now you're going to tell me that we could measure the size of something almost totally dark with an angular size about 1/300th of an incredibly bright star Betelgeuse, and which could well be edge-on? I don't think so. And simply being able to detect it wouldn't be enough. You have to find it and identify it. That's hard. Finding Betelgeuse is easy. It's the bright red star in Orion. You can see it with the naked eye. You already know where to point your detector. That gives you an enormous head start. Yeah, you've got those motion sensors. Still. I'm amazed if even those work at "extreme range."
  
  Consider that a 100 watt light bulb emits about 10^15 photons / cm^2 / second at a distance of 1 meter (a quick fact from my _Classical Electrodynamics_ textbook by Jackson.). Let's say your detector is 10m x 10m (1000cm x 1000cm). That gives you 10^21 / d^2 photons/second in your detector, where d is the distance in meters. So at 100,000,000 km (less than the distance from the Sun to the Earth), you get 10^21/[(10^11)^2] = 0.1 photons per second. Then you have to include the inefficiency of your detector and be able able to pick out those 0.1 or fewer photons / second from those from the background stars. Add to that the noise you'll get, and you'll find it rather impossible to detect a dark extremely distant ship. Add to that you don't even know which way to point your detector. And you're telling me we can not only detect, but also _find_ and _identify_ a tiny at such a distance? I don't think so. You also have resolution problems due to the unavoidable diffraction of light. There are certain limits imposed by physical laws that you simply cannot get around.
  
  Granted, the ship isn't a 100 W bulb, but this is close enough to see how hard this is. There are no explicit distances given but we do have Sulu saying, "Something visual ahead, Captain, at extreme range." So I think 100,000,000 km is on the short side if anything. Even at 1,000,000 km, you get only 1000 photons per second.
  
  Maybe, just maybe there'll be a way to accomplish this in the future, but if so it probably would take time to collect enough photons. But I hope you can now appreciate just how hard a problem it is. I think it highly unlikely that it will ever be practicable.
  
  6. great response to this question from an above poster about the tal shiar.
  
  The Tal Shiar is a ridiculous explanation. Commenter zerothis, whom you referenced for this, says, "I like to think the addition of a visual signal on the Romulan ship that can be tapped into would be due to Tal Shiar (Yes, cannon [sic] does establishes it predates the Federation) wanting to make it easy to spy on their soldiers. Its there unbeknownst to the Romulan captain and crew, and made easy to use for the Tal Shiar (and unfortunately and unforeseen of them, easy for the Federation to use also)."
  
  OK, so you're saying that the Federation somehow knows about this Tal Shiar even though the Romulans in their own ship don't know about it? Wouldn't Romulan ships detect the Tal Shiar beams from each other? If the Federation can, then certainly other Romulan ships can. I think they'd catch on at some point. And it's kind of a dumb thing to do being that, as you yourself said, the enemy can easily pick up the video too.
  
  There's also the rule of silence that Decius broke. Tal Shiar would break that, too. And as the transmission would be aimed the other way, it's amazing the Enterprise could detect any signal at all.
  
  There is nothing in the episode to indicate that there is such a thing. In fact, the reason given was that Decius sent a signal to the Praetor. And it's quite clear from Uhura and Spock that they're getting the video from and because of the communication by Decius, not by any separate signal from a 24/7 security camera. And they lost the picture when the transmission ended. Why would Decius send a live video feed from the bridge? You could say that the Tal Shiar sneaked it in. Fine, but that takes a lot more bandwidth than a glorious message, so it wouldn't work, on top of the other problems given above.
  
  The communication was in code. Uhura made a tape of it so that Spock could decode it _later_. And the video portion certainly wasn't in some known format like NSTC or PAL or whatever they use on the Enterprise. But you would have him getting and _decoding_ a secret video in an unknown format in real time (and before analyzing the tape to decode it!) from a signal aimed away from them, only seconds after the beginning of the transmission, and somehow even know that there was video in the message in the first place?! "I have a fix on it, Captain. I believe I can lock on it, get a picture of their Bridge." I don't think so.
  
  Tal Shiar may pre-date the Federation, but it was made up _after_ TOS. That's a weakness at best.
  
  7. Spock covers this problem when describing the power cost of the cloaking device.
  
  Are you talking about having to turn off the cloaking device to fire the plasma ball weapon? I was asking about why the Romulans don't have _phasers_.
  
  8. you answered this question yourself.
  
  They could have at least tried to steer away from the plasma ball. They have done evasive maneuvers in other episodes.
  
  9. both ships are heavily damaged as you stated and the romulans were already stated to be very low on power so it probably took them longer to fire their weapon. Additionally, the Romulans may have been complacent thinking the Enterprise was defenseless (like they stated, "at our mercy.")
  
  If the ships are heavily damaged they'd be unlikely to be able to fire their weapons at all. Even so, 35 seconds is a long time. And what good are the cloaking device and the plasma weapon if the ship is so vulnerable to mere phasers during that time interval? Don't they have any decent shields? As for "very low on power": If your car is low on gas, you can still accelerate at the same rate. Only if you're running on batteries would this be a problem.
  
  Once you make your own ship visible, it is a no-brainer to fire as soon as possible.
  
  10. they got lucky...
  
  As for lucky shots, we're talking lotto-jackpot lucky here. (Remember when Stiles says, "the wildest stroke of luck"?) When they lose the Romulans in the comet, Kirk fires the weapons and somehow hits their ship, _even though they have no clue as to which way to fire_! Kirk even says, "Now, fire blind." All of the phaser shots are lotto-jackpot lucky except the last barrage when the Romulan ship is visible. Hell, if they can hit the ship even with its cloaking device on and firing blind, what good is this amazing device?
  
  11. they got unlucky... (sometimes things go right and sometimes they dont, hardly a problem that kirk fired lucky shots and that the weapons malfunctioned)
  
  Unlucky? As in the phasers crapping out three times in the same episode?! So you're saying they can get a video of their bridge, see extremely dark extremely tiny ships at extreme distances, make lotto-jackpot-lucky hits repeatedly with phasers that have a range longer than that of the plasma ball chasing the Enterprise for more than two minutes, and aim them from that same distance (!), yet these same phasers somehow crap out not just once, but three separate times? And no backup phasers? You can't have it both ways.
  
  12. the ship tilts because it just got hit by a nuclear weapon (lots of force). that is obvious, and i dont understand your objection. any loss of balance or changing perspective for the actual people can be explained by gravity plating not functioning correctly...... when hit with a frickin nuclear weapon.
  
  You seem to have totally misunderstood what I was asking. I said: "Why do the ships tilt when damaged? There's no up and down in deep space."
  
  There is no up and down in deep space. Tilting then becomes a matter of "relative to what?", not an indication of ship damage.
  
  It's clear that the "tilting" was meant to show damage. And having people falling across the bridge was meant to show that the ship has been tilted. The problem is: how do you square this with the fact that there is no up and down in space?
  
  It is very difficult or even impossible for most of us, if not all of us (aside from astronauts), to imagine what it's like to be in an environment without an up direction. (In fact, I recall one astronaut saying that to avoid disorientation, they (or he, at least) have to mentally and forcibly choose an arbitrary direction to be up.) This follows from the fact that we evolved, grow up, and live in an environment with an up direction, which is determined by the Earth's gravitational field. The up direction, along with the gravity that determines it, is of enormous consequence in our lives. That's probably another reason it's so hard to shake off.
  
  And this is why tilting and falling across the bridge are so problematic. It presumes an external up direction. But an up direction comes from gravity, and there is no external gravity here, hence no reference for absolute tilting or falling. BTW, notice that Kirk and Uhura fall "uphill" while everyone else falls "downhill". The only thing that saves this is that in the "tilted" position, they are not aimed at the enemy. I'll grant you that.
  
  So it is difficult to portray something more realistic. Also, notice that the debris in the Romulan bridge falls straight (perpendicular) to the floor, contrary to what you would get if the ship really "tilted," but exactly what you would expect from just the camera tilting. But at least the Romulans all fall "downhill", and the actors' timing is truly remarkable!
  
  I don't know enough about the gravity plating to comment on how it might malfunction. But I think your explanation is rather unlikely, and the mere existence or even possibility of such plates is very unlikely. Also, there is, AFAIK, no explanation in TOS as to how they work or that they even exist.
  
  Back to the ships: The Enterprise would have been rotating after the nuke went off. It wouldn't just rotate a little and then stop. Besides, based on the apparent tilt, the bridge crew didn't even "fall" in the right direction. Another problem is that at the end of the episode the Romulan ship appears to be rotating in a way that violates the law of conservation of angular momentum.
  
  13. the play dead game is a very real thing for submarine battles. Why cant the same be true in this situation?
  
  Fine. All I was asking is why the Romulans couldn't detect and find the Enterprise _while_ it was shutting down its non-critical systems. I'll cut you some slack here. (~_^)
  
  14. motionless relative to each other. come on, that was easy, you didnt try very hard on that problem. perfect example of fishing for problems where they dont exist.
  
  Well hell, why doesn't the Enterprise just move a little then? And it's ridiculous for other reasons. The Enterprise often "stops" in space. It seems from the series taken in totality that nothing can move without being actively propelled. Or needing continuous power just to stay in orbit. Orbits decaying in hours or less is ridiculous. And it's only once that I can recall that "coasting" was a real thing. It's as if Newton's laws of motion didn't exist.
  
  And if they have motion sensors, why not also radar? Actually, if the motion sensors work by the Doppler effect, zero relative motion would also be detectable, which basically would be the equivalent of radar.
  
  In this episode: "Captain's log - supplemental. Now motionless for . . ." Relative to what? Well, approximately to the galaxy, I'd presume. How would you measure that? BTW, the galaxy itself is moving! It seems clear to me that the writers for TOS had no conception of relativity theory, and were assuming the world of absolute time and space given in Newtonian physics (but not his laws of motion) -- and I believe even Newton realized there was a problem with that, in particular, finding which inertial reference frame is the one that is truly "at rest." Relativity solved that problem by determining that there is no such preferred inertial reference frame and more.
  
  15. you answered this yourself.
  
  I believe this is in reference to my comment: "Why didn't Spock save Tomlinson?" I still think it's a point well worth some discussion, as there is too much ambiguity with it. And especially since Spock seems so concerned about other life forms (and even entities like M5, Nomad, Landru, but then only to exploit or study) and so little about humans if they're not useful for something he deems important enough.
  
  I still love Star Trek TOS, even with all its problems.
• From Chris on 2018-02-08 at 9:29pm:
  Lots of problems with this episode but it sure was fun to watch as a kid!
  
  Like a few others, I have a problem with no side having seen the other notion. I can't imagine any treaty being signed without some kind of face-to-face meeting between belligerents.
  
  Further, the war took place before warp drive which means humans have not yet met Vulcans despite what Spock says. Further, he says that there was no ship to ship visual contact! How does Stiles know that Romulan vessels are painted like a big bird of prey?
  
  Even if warp drive had been discovered and Vulcans and humans knew each other, how would a Romulan know this, or even consider it a good idea to keep their little secret? Why would they know their roots, but Vulcans not? None of this makes sense at all to me despite the Enterprise series' explanations, which I've not seen.
  
  Not buying!
  
  Stiles should have been clapped in irons and run out of the service for his open disrespect and bigotry to a senior officer!!!
  
  I don't know if this was mentioned anywhere above ...probably... but, the Enterprise looks to be firing Photon Torpedoes and not Phasers. A glaring error and they should have fixed it with the remaster.
  
  It's better to be lucky than good!
  
  As Spock so often says throughout the series, "We were most fortunate!" or "Random chance seems to have worked in our favor!"
  
  FYI, the episode is based on the excellent movie, "The Enemy Below" which can be seen freely on YouTube. I highly recommend it!!
• From Orac on 2022-09-13 at 7:37am:
  @Alan Feldman. Your "rebuttal" is petty,contrived and rambling.Very difficult to read due to its bitter and lengthy diatribe and pseudo science.
  I dont think Rick was being hostile.
  Sometimes hardcore "fans" need to just enjoy a great story and not act like they couod write it better and that fact ruins it for them. 21st century trek culture eh!?
• From Alan Feldman on 2022-12-02 at 9:51pm:
  @Orac
  
  "I will show you how pretty much everyone of your "problems" isnt one:" [sic]
  
  Seems at least a little hostile to me. Hey, that's what emojis and emoticons are for!
  
  Contrived? I don't see how. Can you give a specific example?
  
  Rambling? Well, maybe a little. But with so many problems, it's going to be a little long. Also, it's usually the case that a rebuttal is going to be longer than the original. I still remember when Reagan said, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." Like the man or not, that's a great line. It was so good, in fact, that you can see Mondale smiling and perhaps even laughing. Now, how are you going to rebut that in as many or fewer words?
  
  Sorry, but I'm borderline on this episode. In most eps (except the really bad ones) I can go with it, even though I occasionally cringe at the bad science and even the bad logic of some of the plots. But I just can't help but notice so many problems in this one. I still love the dialog on the Romulan ship, and was glad to finally find out what the Neutral Zone is all about. Also, discussion of strategy is fun, except I still don't understand the comet bit. They were going to do an end run or something like that. Instead, they go through the comet and expect to find the Romulan ship when they exit the comet. Can you explain that? (Just askin'.)
  
  Like I said, I love Star Trek TOS TV eps, even with the occasional cringe moments. And I do point out the good when others don't, like the truly excellent job they did with the large background mattes in WNMHGB, Menagerie, Armageddon, Dagger, and maybe a few others. (I'm talking the 1960s version, not the remastered stuff.) Good special effects are hard to notice, as their very purpose is to look "real" and not draw attention to themselves. But when I do notice them, I point out how good they are. And those mattes are among the best I've ever seen. I challenge anyone to find the border between the best mattes and the studio floor.
  
  Pseudoscience? Do you have any evidence for that? Look up the stuff I mentioned. Then report back.
  
  You don't need to be able to write it better to criticize or even review a TV show or movie. If that were the case, it would be the end of 99% of all reviews! I could have served as science advisor, though.
  
  Hey, even _2001: A Space Odyssey_ has a lot of problems. Still a great movie.
  
  I also understand that they're on a tight budget and a tight schedule, and that re-writes are sometimes essential, as what's written in the script doesn't always translate well into live action. They work long hours and there will be some errors. I grant that. If I couldn't deal with it, I couldn't watch _any_ of the episodes. As CinemaSins says in the "Everything Wrong with <name of movie>" series on YouTube: "No movie is without sin." And while they're just as vicious with their reviews of Star Trek as with at least one other movie they review (The Matrix), they explicitly say that they love Star Trek anyway (as do I). And their _very purpose_ is to find as many "sins" as they can. It usually numbers about a hundred and change. You might not like them. I do, as most of the sins are right on the money and enjoyable. Oh, the Nostalgia Critic also reviews movies, and for "The Matrix" they add their own side sketch. Oh, and there are problems with these reviews, too!
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From rhea on 2008-04-27 at 8:50pm:
  Decker as a Commodore: well, that depends. In some fleets on Earth (e.g. in the UK), a Commodore (a flag rank) outranks a Captain, so if this is the case in Starfleet Decker outranks Kirk and can take command of the Enterprise even against Kirk’s direct order. That is however weird since Commodores don’t command single ships on a regular basis. Unless the writers accepted this kind of plot hole for dramatic purposes.
  On the other hand, an American Commodore has the rank of a Captain, but temporarily is given command of a small fleet and is thus temporarily elevated in rank so he outranks the other Captains. The authority attached to the rank is temporary; the person stays a Captain and retains the duties attached to a Captain’s rank. Out of courtesy, however, the title is sometimes still used even after the temporary mission is over, so Decker may well have been a regular Captain who was once elevated to Commodore for a special mission and retained the title from it. What do you think?
  
• From TashaFan on 2008-09-19 at 2:24am:
  Decker is a Commodore for dramatic effect. As a Commodore he outranks Kirk and therefore it is clear that when Kirk forces him to relinquish command, it's not a battle of equals, but Decker has been emasculated by his junior. It also means Kirk's actions are not just an argument among peers but are actual insubordination. If Decker was just another Captain there would be much less dramatic conflict. Although I agree with the other comment, in the episode with the M5 computer we see that Commodore Bob Wesley is indeed in command of a fleet of four ships.
• From Ggen on 2012-03-15 at 11:01pm:
  This was an altogether awesome episode. The central plot and its resolution are both quite good. At the forefront of the entire thing is the twisted psyche of the Commodore, clinging to a failed captaincy, trying to redeem himself in his own bizarre, suicidal way. The Commodore is rather brilliantly written and portrayed and a kind of twisted pleasure to watch. (Interesting how in his misguided efforts he ultimately did help stop the doomsday device by giving Kirk the right idea).
  
  The command tensionS on the Enterprise between the Commodore, Spock, and McCoy was especially great.
  
  I have to comment here about the Commodore's fight sequences en route to the shuttlebay, which were absolutely awesome. Something in the choreography was definitely lost, irretrievably lost between the transition from TOS to all the later series. (I just watched TNG The Hunted which is about a supersoldier and has numerous fights, all of them atrocious when compared to TOS...)
  
  The doomsday machine was an interesting idea (later recycled somewhat in TNG 1x21 Arsenal of Freedom and Voyager 2x17 Dreadnought) and was executed sufficiently well. I can't quite decide whether the model and special effects were silly or awesome (I think some strange mixture of both). The final explosion was definitively cool.
  
  Problem(?):
  If the Enterprise was more maneuverable than the doomsday device, it stretches credibility a bit to have it reappear "out of nowhere" and catch everyone by surprise early in the episode. Of course, there was the matter of "subspace interference," but from what I recall, that was mostly discussed in terms of communications, not things like long-range sensors, the viewscreen, etc...
• From warpfactor 10.1 on 2012-09-20 at 5:20pm:
  I'd forgotten what a great episode this was. I thought it was exciting despite the fact that I knew Kirk wasn't going to die (hope that doesn't spoil it for anyone). The dramatic tension regarding Decker's clash with Spock and Kirk was well done. Guests often get to overact but somehow it doesn't seem out of place and is almost necessary given the relatively short episodes. Although Decker seems as mad as a box of frogs at least he was prepared to go down with his ship which is more than can be said for at least one captain recently.
  I thought the visual effects were done well (being no fan of CGI).
  The one thing stopping me giving it quite as high a score as I might is NO UHURA! There can be no excuse for that. No wonder Scotty was a bit subdued.
• From Royals42 on 2013-06-12 at 6:22pm:
  Is it just me or is there no thought whatsoever on shooting Photon Torpedos. I know it probably wouldn't have done much but maybe shooting a dozen right up the throat of that thing would have been comparable to the explosion of the ship.
  
  Other than that it was in my top 5 episodes of TOS. #1 of course is Balance of Terror! It was exciting to see something from another Galaxy and it would have been more interesting if they had examined it more after they "killed it." However maybe it's identity would have made it less menacing.
• From Scott Hearon on 2014-04-06 at 11:55am:
  Excellent episode. I gave it an 8/10.
  
  The only things that bug me are: (1) the way that Decker becomes oddly smug and calmly self-satisfied right in the middle of his fit of obsessed vengeance/guilt. It seemed completely out of place. (2) At this point, I'm rather tired of just how insanely quickly Kirk becomes bemused and cracks wise, even immediately after a horribly traumatic experience. I know some hardcore devotees of TOS will consider this blasphemy, but it just rubs me the wrong way.
  
  All else about this episode is great. The shift of Decker from victim to villain to hero is splendid viewing. The antagonist Doomsday Machine, obviously social commentary about the Cold War arms race, is the most terrifying thing that I've seen in a Star Trek episode. Having Scotty be a major part of defeating it was fun, and the entire 3-way interaction between the Machine, Kirk on the Constellation, and Decker on the Enterprise was perfectly balanced. The drama that ensues moves the tale along at a great pace, and it truly is one of the absolute best episodes.
• From Chris Long on 2017-11-08 at 9:39pm:
  I know I'm late to this great website so forgive me.
  
  The acting by the guy who played Decker was superb. The one thing that draws me back to TOS is a generally outstanding acting by the cast and the guest stars!
  
  The "Don't you think I know that?" line is one of the most heart-wrenching in television in general.
  
  Contrasted against Kirk's casualness at the end of episodes where billions of people have died, it was pretty stark.
  
  In agreement with Scott Hearon, I'm constantly annoyed by that little 'habit' of TOS.
• From Alan Feldman on 2022-06-25 at 6:49pm:
  "Planetary system" suffers from the same bad logic used against "solar system." The argument goes: 'Solar system contains "Sol," and so cannot refer to other solar systems.' Well, planetary system contains "planet," and therefore cannot refer to the planets' sun, the system's meteoroids, asteroids, moons, Kuiper objects, Oort cloud, etc. So "planetary system" suffers from the same logical "error" that "solar system" does. The only reason we even have such a term is the discovery of exoplanets. That was novel. Stars are old hat. So astronomers were studying these newly discovered planets, which obviously make up planetary systems. But a solar system is so much more than a planetary system: Its sun, moons, meteoroids, asteroids, Kuiper objects, etc. But the powers-that-be have already forced upon us this equally, if not more so, defective term. So be it. Again: "Solar system" contains Sol, so it only means ours (contrary to the dictionary). So that means that "planetary system" can only refer to planets, as it contains "planet," and not the rest of the remote solar system. Equally bad logic in both cases.
• From Alan Feldman on 2022-06-25 at 7:25pm:
  I heartily recommended the original non-CGI version. While there are problems with the special effects, the new version needlessly introduced some serious problems.
  
  First of all, the machine is basically a flamethrower. Supposed to be pure anti-proton beam, which you could imagine is the case in the original. But in the new version, it's just a flamethrower. A flamethrower! It comes all the way from another galaxy, and it's a flamethrower. Well whoop-dee-do. And when the thing is finally killed, it droops.
  
  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
  
  It's out in deep space. There's no up and down in space! There's enough of a problem with gravity almost everywhere, including on a ship with almost no power. And now the thing droops?! This is not an improvement!!! In the original it actually looked dead. Frozen, even. And the explosion that kills it is in some sense better in the original.
  
  I also think the old one looked scarier with its abstract optical effect at the "bottom" of its "throat." In the new one, it's just some flames.
  
  Somewhere in the CGI version you can see the nacelles in the viewer. We're talking 200 or 300 years in the future, and they can't have a clear, non-claustrophobic view? Really?
  
  Yet another problem: What are the horizontal "wrinkles", esp. when the ship is approaching the camera? Looks like some weird form of interlacing. Maybe it's just my copy. If not, so much for "superior image quality."
  
  >----o----<
  
  As great an episode as this is, it has some problems:
  
  How the hell did Scotty, immediately upon materializing, know there was a problem with the transporter?
  
  How did the communications officer get those reports so fast? There is practically no time between her reciting them.
  
  Why didn't they fire down the throat of the thing? Why didn't the thing blast them when they're right in front of it? OK, maybe the thing wanted to swallow it for "nourishment."
  
  I think it's in no small part the music that makes this ep so good, despite all its problems. And yes, William Windom puts in an awesome performance. Oh, and as usual, the sound effects are awesome.
  
  Again, I heartily recommend the original version, even though you can see stars through its "wall" at the front of the machine.
  
  BTW, I still love this episode. Certainly no. 1 for action, and most importantly as always, a good story.
  
  >----o----<
  
  Ever notice that the windows in the shuttle craft are too high for the "pilot" to see out of?
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-09 at 7:52am:
  - Why does the Enterprise just hang in space waiting for Picard to return in the shuttle? Why doesn't the Enterprise warp over to get him? It can travel much faster than a shuttle, and as it turns out, speed is of the essence. As soon as Picard reaches the bridge, he sets a course for the Neutral Zone at warp 8!
  - When Offenhouse wanders onto the bridge, Riker orders Security to have him removed. The Security guys do rush over and grab him, but then they get mesmerized by the decloaking Romulan ship. What kind of military discipline is this?
  - While Riker is talking to the recently thawed humans, Picard pages him. Riker gets up from his chair, walks over to a companel, touches it, and responds. Riker is notorious for not touching anything when it comes to communications. And why would he get up and walk over to a companel when he could just slap his chest? Obviously it is a plot contrivance to allow Offenhouse to see how they work so that later in the episode he can bother Picard.
• From carsonist on 2009-03-28 at 2:14pm:
  I was proud of myself for recognizing that the Romulan you see on the left is the actor who later plays Gul Dukat. He still has the same speech patterns.
  
  In all, a good episode.
• From onlinebroker on 2009-09-21 at 10:39am:
  Best episode in season 1, but the end feels a bit weird. So the romulans didnt destroy the outpost, who did? Nobody cares and they just leave? Weird.
• From thaibites on 2009-12-03 at 4:05am:
  BORING...we needed less losers from the past and more Romulans.
• From Roland on 2010-04-16 at 9:42pm:
  This episode, IMO, sets the stage for the introduction of the Borg
• From rpeh on 2010-06-20 at 8:58pm:
  One of the most overrated episodes. The whole thing is so rushed, you have to assume it was originally intended to be a two-parter and got cut down later on. Beyond comic relief, the frozen humans offer nothing and the only purpose of the Romulans is to come out with that awful "we're back" line.
  
  In brief: the humans serve no real purpose; the Romulans serve no real purpose... so what is the purpose of this episode?
• From Bernard on 2010-06-21 at 6:36pm:
  I agree completely with rpeh. This episode is decidedly average. There is some talk of the palpable tension when the Romulans make their appearance? Well someone must have forgotten to tell me about it because there is little tension in this episode about 21st century humans trying to deal with waking up 300 years later. While that is an interesting premise it it very rushed and wasted on this episode. As is the reintroduction of the Romulans. They do not threaten, or hint at aggression. There simply is no 'game of chess'. They simply appear near the end to huge hype and there is no payoff at all.
  
  Overall I would say the fan rating of 6.5 is a pretty good indicator, I'd give it a 5 or 6.
• From linearA on 2010-09-03 at 4:58am:
  I was bothered by the preachy talk about how people in the 24th century no longer fear death. Still, I was able to overlook the episode's shortcomings, and I consider this the first top-notch episode.
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-28 at 3:49am:
  I don't rate this episode very highly, but it did have its moments. When I first watched this episode, and saw the huge new Warbird uncloak in front of the Enterprise, I thought it was pretty cool. The Romulan plot had some definite suspense. But most of the episode was dedicated to the cryogenics plot, which totally clashed with the Romulan plot; the suspense was broken up by silly 20th century antics. Also, the suspense is something of an unfulfilled promise. Of course it sounds interesting to say "The Romulans disappeared mysteriously, nobody has seen them for 50 years, and now they are back!" It sounds like a teaser to make you watch a TV show. But when nothing interesting is really ever made of the premise, it is hard to give it any brownie points.
  
  Some of the 24th-20th century clashes are interesting as far as how they develop and explain the Star Trek universe. Picard's statement about how the purpose of life in the 24th century is self-improvement, not survival or making money, is particularly memorable to me. But primarily the screen time was spent with the 20th century humans annoying the Enterprise crew, which I didn't find entertaining.
  
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-10-20 at 3:17pm:
  This episode fleshes out one of the main themes of TNG: the idea that life is no longer about acquisition of material wealth, power, fame, or any of the other external status symbols that we strive for, but is instead about internal things: Intellectual, artistic and spiritual pursuits.
  
  That is, as long as the pursuits are not in the form of organized religion, which is generally panned by TNG. But I digress.
  
  The idea that the Federation manages without a concept of currency is commonly expressed in TNG, as it is here. This seems rather preposterous, frankly. Currency is required for any kind of reasonable economy, and in places like Utopia Plenetia we see huge works going on. How is this managed? How does the Federation manage to obtain valuable commodities like dylithium from other races without some form of currency? In Voyager where the crew is frequently running short on stuff, they resort to barter, a rather inefficient way of organizing economic transactions.
  
  The Ferengi certainly have a currency in the form of gold-pressed latinum, but this is a symbol of how they are less evolved.
• From Helium on 2012-02-19 at 5:46am:
  I think the next time I get a sales pitch from my ISP attempting to sign me onto a TV contract I will quote Data "That particular form of entertainment [will
  
  become] extinct in the year 2040". I really hope he is right. I hope on demand video and OLED screens 3D or whatever is coming will evolve to make TV (and pushing ADS 24/7) completely obsolete. I also hope that our species does in fact survive the 21st century. I often think that with so many Offenhouses, perhaps we will evolve into the Ferangi or perhaps even the Borg (although that would take much longer than a mere 300 years).
  
  Anyhow I am getting slightly off topic. I LOVE this episode. There is so much to ponder. So many reasons to fall in love (again) with the United Federation of Planets. It makes me want to raise the flag, go to Starfleet Academy and put on a tight fitting jump suit. Alas I will not live that long however, after viewing this episode one can only hope we live up to our potential as a species. Let us all prove to Riker we can indeed survive the 21st century.
• From doulos23 on 2013-12-24 at 6:32am:
  I believe at the core of whether this episode is liked or not has a lot to do with one's personal agreement with the Roddenberry-ian philosophies or not. It is no secret that Gene's vision was of a techno socialist Utopia. It is an easier pill to swallow the pedantic lecturing of so-called "unevolved" selfish 20 Century man if one agrees with the "promise" of such a future - and one is forgiving of Anvilicious programming. I love Trek, but caricatures are straw men no matter your personal worldview.
• From Amine on 2015-05-15 at 2:00pm:
  What's with the judgment of cryonics? What a condescending reaction they all had, especially Riker with "no redeeming qualities"... how dehumanizing! There is a contradiction in them doing medicine at all and then scorning people for staying alive in this way. And Picard essentially wanted Data to murder those people in the beginning of the episode. Bizarre.
• From tigertooth on 2017-03-18 at 5:41am:
  As others have indicated, I felt the two plot strands didn't mesh together well and neither was very satisfying. We spend most of our time with the unfrozen people, but then never really resolve their plot. Instead the climax goes to the Romulan plot, but given the fact that the destroyed colonies are never mentioned again, that's unsatisfying as well.
  
  There were elements in both plots that could have been developed better and made into good episodes (probably separate episodes), but as it is, this is kind of a mess. Not terrible by any means -- probably in the top half of 1st season episodes -- but not that good.
• From Mike on 2017-03-29 at 4:43am:
  Riker: "It's a pity we can't take them ourselves. Having them on board is like a visit from the past."
  
  Picard: "That would take us in the wrong direction. Our mission is to go forward..."
  
  This is an odd thing to hear Picard say when you realize, after watching the entire series, that he almost became an archaeologist and it's still his main hobby.
  
  What is believable though is the behavior of the 20th century humans. My favorite is Offenhouse, only because he represents so many of the things you hope humanity will indeed eventually move away from as imagined by Star Trek.
  
  The impending encounter with the Romulans looms over this episode nicely, building tension that doesn't disappoint. Best of the first season by far.
• From Axel on 2018-06-13 at 12:08am:
  Re: Jeff Browning
  
  Currency and exchange are based on the idea that you have a scarce amount of one resource or product, and abundance of another. While this includes luxury items, its foundation is necessities: clothing, food, shelter, energy, medicine, etc. All economic models are based on the notion that these items are scarce, finite, and require labor to obtain.
  
  In the future Earth (though not all of the Federation), the idea is that there no longer is scarcity when it comes to necessities. Food and clothing can be replicated. Energy is presumably all drawn from renewable sources. Technology has made medicine, transportation, communication, and shelter all readily available. Automation has replaced human labor in many areas.
  
  If all necessities are taken care of and nobody risks going cold or starving, then what will people do with their time? Will they sit around, lazily mooching from their Eden, growing fat, dumb and happy? H.G. Wells "Time Machine" believed so, which is why you had some humans eventually evolving into the Eloi. Star Trek believes something different. It imagines that, free of the pressure to compete for resources or hoard wealth, people will pursue those interests and goals they otherwise would have: history, art, music, science, etc. As we see from the Picard and Sisko families, some people like to live the old fashioned way, resulting in restaurants and wine that everybody enjoys. Others want to explore the galaxy...hence Starfleet. The collective goals and ambitions of humanity benefit the entire civilization. Is it lofty? Perhaps...but then again, it's not hard to imagine replication technology, automated labor, and renewable energy eventually providing many of our needs even within sight of our own time. And how many people are stuck in jobs they hate because the job market doesn't reward them them for doing what they've always wanted? Would those people honestly sit around and watch TV all day, if they didn't have to work? Perhaps some would...but I do believe enough would pursue something that you could base a civilization on it.
  
  I know I'm going off on a tangent here, but I get the idea that's what this episode is trying to say. The 20th century human Offenhouse can't contemplate how this new economy works, and Picard tries to offer him a summary of the path he can take. It's the Roddenberry vision: a future where every kid learns how to read, none go hungry, and there's no need for money. It's either that, or we end up like the Ferengi :)
• From C on 2019-01-13 at 10:16pm:
  Wonderful episode.
  
  It’s interesting that some commenters here apparently have less trouble suspending disbelief related to the speed of light than the necessity of currency.
  
  Highlights why this episode is so good. Humans have a long way to go before we’ll be starfleet material.
• From jeffenator98 on 2019-07-19 at 5:26pm:
  An average episode at best. 5/10

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-06-24 at 12:39am:
  Data: "That action injured you and saved me. I will not forget it." (Great line)
  
  - Data tells Picard that Maddox was the only dissenting member of a sceening committee that approved his entrance into Starfleet. Maddox did this because he did not believe that Data was sentient. It seems reasonable that Starfleet would allow only sentient beings to attend the academy. However, since the rest of the members of the committee disagreed with Maddox's position, didn't they already imply that Data is sentient? If so, when did Data lose that label?
  - Maddox asks the JAG officer if Starfleet would let the computer of a starship refuse a refit. But the comparison doesn't match up at all. Starfleet built the computers on starships. They did not build Data. If Data belongs to anyone, he belongs to Dr. Noonian Soong. All Starfleet did was find him.
  - JAG officer to Riker if he doesn't prosecute: "Then I will rule summarily based on my findings. Data is a toaster." A toaster? That seems a little antiquated for the twenty-fourth century. Wouldn't a person in the twenty-fourth century illustrate their point using an everyday item for them - something like a food replicator, a tricorder, or a communicator?
• From TashaFan on 2008-09-28 at 11:34pm:
  I LOVED the reference to Data being "a toaster"... because "toaster" is what the Colonial warriors in "Battlestar Galactica" called the Cylons, who are also a mechanized artificial lifeform. I wonder if Ron Moore, who went to spearhead the "reimagined" Battlestar series, had anything to do with this reference?
• From Razorback on 2009-06-26 at 1:26am:
  A shocking episode.
  They have stripped away all of the trappings of a normal star trek episode, and done away with the sense of intergalactic exploration that gives me a reason to continu watching.
  
  Istead, they have created this terrible episode.
  
  You ask me to justify this?
  
  It has ruined me for the rest of star trek.
  No oher episodes will have even the slightest chance of ever living up to this one, seemingly set up to allow patrick stewart to prove exactly why he is seen as one of the greatest actors of all time. Brent spiner and Jonathan Frakes also outdo themselves - the dialogue is wonderful, the character's magnificent, and the whoe issue outstanding - leaving us with the question are we not all man made machines?
  
  I would also like to note the look on maddox's face at the end of the episode, as he relises that Cmr Data is far more wonderful than he'd ever imagined.
  
  Definately a 10 rated episode - a wonderful example of exactly why star trek is more than a sci-fi show.
  
• From Ching on 2010-04-06 at 3:38am:
  Thoroughly moving episode, but there are two things I question. One is to do with Picard's speech being, perhaps, unrealistically effective. I think I received it as one of those fictional events that has a perfect effect in it's story, but realistically would be questioned or perhaps a bit unprofessional (with Picard being so intimidating and emotional). But I'm much hazier on whether I find that an issue (and it wouldn't be a huge one) or not. I'm also not exactly well versed in court procedures to begin with.
  The second issue is with Riker's role in the story. I know the episode makes it clear why he was unfit to have taken the prosecution role, but does anyone know why there's a rule that the next most senior officer of the 'defendant's' ship becomes 'prosecutor'? I know, at least, that a jury is chosen specifically as an impartial body of people, so why chose a prosecutor who's in agreement with the defender? Makes no sense to have your opposing forces biased in the same way, but it certainly created an interesting drama. And like I said before, I really liked this episode on the whole, despite some confusion about common sense.
• From tigertooth on 2011-03-24 at 2:12am:
  I agree that the episode was great. My quibble: the first thing Riker does is call Data to the stand as his witness. Would he call a tricorder to the stand? Or the ship's computer? No, you call *people* to the stand as witnesses. If I was Picard, I would have said "There you go! Case closed!"
  
  But anything that gives Picard (Stewart) a chance to go off on a righteous monologue is pretty much guaranteed to be great.
• From CAlexander on 2011-03-29 at 2:13am:
  This is a fine episode. I especially love the way Picard starts his speech by dismissing the opposing arguments as irrelevant. The only caveat I have about this episode is that it portrays Starfleet's judicial system as oddly primitive and arbitrary.
• From Jeff Browning on 2011-09-23 at 11:24pm:
  Agree with CAlexander's comment about how crude the Federation legal system appeared. As an attorney, I found it embarrassing. Several obvious issues:
  
  1. Data can't choose his own counsel? He is told that Picard will represent him. Picard offers to replace himself, but Louvois makes no such offer. The choice of defense counsel is totally in the control of the defendant in all civilized legal systems.
  
  2. The notion that Riker has to prosecute is absurd. He has a strong personal relationship with the accused. He is obviously not qualified. He would have to recuse himself.
  
  3. Why didn't Maddox appeal? You're telling me that a ruling by a mere JAG officer in a remote star base is final?
  
  You get the idea. Anyone with any legal training can find holes big enough to drive a truck through on this one.
• From One moon shirt on 2012-02-27 at 3:56am:
  I would give this episode 100 if there was such a rating. This is some of the best Trek out there. The issue of slavery and human rights is classic, this is an episode that will always endure the test of time, people will be watching this one in the 24th century :)
• From Rick on 2012-10-10 at 4:11am:
  This may well be the quintessential star trek episode. How do we treat new life forms?
  
  A commenter above notes that this episode may be flawed because Maddox already made the argument that Data was not sentient and he lost. This point of view is flawed, however, because although Maddox made the argument that Data is not sentient, the Board may have ruled that Data could be admitted to Starfleet on alternate grounds. This is a technical legal point but it is certainly plausible. The board simply couldve punted on the sentience issue and ruled that Data was admissible to Starfleet for whatever reason.
  
  The rest of Maddox's argument is rather poor upon further examination, as other commenters have noted. His entire reasoning is based upon analogy to other types of machines. Fatal flaw? No other type of machine is capable of or would refuse his examination. It seems pretty obvious to me that as soon as a being is capable of refusing to be destroyed (albeit potentially), it has earned the right not to be.
• From Rick on 2013-11-11 at 5:19pm:
  One more thing. Even if Data is ruled to be property why would he be Starfleet's property? Isnt he still his creator's property? Maddox would have a tough time explaining how he was against Data being able to join Starfleet while also believing that Starfleet owns him. If I were the judge it wouldve been an easy ruling to say even if Data is ruled as property Starfleet has no ownership so the whole case is irrelevant.
• From the obampresident on 2021-07-16 at 5:44pm:
  Why starfleet property? Because finders keepers :D
  
  Also the whole starship computer refit argument was strange. What if one of those computers really refuses? I am sure investigating the reasons (like possible sentience) for refusing will be more interesting than getting the refit done.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-07-17 at 2:37am:
  This episode still feels relevant, as our species continues to struggle with the challenge of seeing the humanity and intrinsic worth of people who look or act different. Despite ample evidence, Maddox could not see what everyone else could see: that Data exhibits enough obvious signs of sapience, personhood, and self-awareness that we should treat him like a person. He has a will. He's not predictable. He arouses emotion in others. It makes no sense NOT to treat him like a person.
  
  It took considerable effort to get Maddox to see Data's personhood even a little bit, and it wasn't until then that Maddox used Data's correct pronoun, thus signifying his acceptance of Data's autonomy. I find this quite a powerful allegory for the many people whose humanity, whose reality, whose lived experience, has been or is still denied for various reasons.
  
  Fortunately for both Maddox and Data, Data is not capable of being insulted by this or holding a grudge. (In "Data's Day" we hear him reading a letter he is sending to Maddox.) Most of us are not so lucky.
  
  I love the shameless flirting between Picard and Louvois!
  
  "If we weren't around all these people, do you know what I would like to do?"
  "Bust a chair across my teeth?"
  "After that."
  "Oh, ain't love wonderful?"
  
  Damn. Thirsty Trek best Trek.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From DSOmo on 2007-08-03 at 11:19am:
  - Many times Star Trek will dispense too quickly with disastrous encounters in a character's life. For instance, it would have been very easy to jump right into a new set of adventures after rescuing Picard from the Borg. Instead, the creators took an entire episode to explore the emotional changes that the experience caused in Picard's life. Excellent!! One of my favorite TNG episodes.
  - Does it strike anyone else as odd that everyone in France speaks with an English accent during this episode?
• From Wayne on 2009-07-13 at 2:12pm:
  If I remember correctly this was also one of the lowest rated TNG episodes when it was first broadcast.
• From Robert Koenn on 2011-02-24 at 3:09pm:
  My wife and I watched this one last night. It was definitely a different type of episode and quite enjoyable. Picard's recovery and return to his home was heart warming and the rivalry with his brother was very realistic and brought their personalities out. Worf's story was also enjoyable and we always get a kick out of Worf's over the top Klingon reaction to things. Wesley still gets on my nerves but this was a better than usual story for him. Overall I gave it a 9 as I did miss some of the "real" science fiction.
• From thaibites on 2011-04-03 at 3:12am:
  I usually don't like human relationship episodes, but this one is really strong and a pleasure to watch. I think what makes it so strong is that the stories are all central and vital to each character - Wesley's father's death, Worf's discommendation, and Picard's emotional scars after being violated by the Borg. This is all pretty intense stuff, and there is no wasted fluff here. Great episode!
  
  And yes, I was wondering why everyone in France spoke with a British accent. I always wondered why Picard spoke with a mild British accent if he was supposed to be from France. Oh well, c'est la vie...(written with a British accent just to be consistent)
• From CAlexander on 2011-05-26 at 3:06pm:
  An excellent episode, very good all around. I wouldn't picture Picard as the sort of person that bonds with his brother by fighting with him, but it seems perfectly consistent with him growing up as the brash young man who picked a fight with some Nausicans and died laughing. And I love Worf's parents; they are so unlike him, but he just looks perfect as the child who is trying to be manly and is embarrassed by his doting parents. And while the Jack Crusher plot seemed rather extraneous, it too was well-written.
• From Axel on 2015-03-24 at 2:43am:
  This one may have been the lowest rated episode of the season when TNG was on the air, but I think it's gotten more appreciation as time has gone by. I doubt viewers enjoyed seeing Star Trek dabble in soap opera and now it's clear this is so much more.
  
  I agree that after Best of Both Worlds, it would've been strange to just go right to the next voyage of the starship Enterprise. Picard's visit home is the perfect epilogue. He briefly considers leaving his Starfleet career, showing just how much the Borg experience has shaken him. He and his brother continue the lifelong feud they've had, and I like that they really don't completely resolve it in the end. Instead, they reach an understanding through their fight that they both lead different lives, and that Picard's life is in the stars with his ship. The whole visit ends up being cathartic.
  
  It was also the perfect time to show how Worf's parents handle the news about his discommendation. They don't know what exactly it means, nor do they feel entirely comfortable asking Worf the details of it. What they do know is that they need to be there for their son. Despite his rigid emotional hide, Worf shows how much this means to him.
  
  The Wesley storyline was appropriately short, and was just enough to fill in between the others while also keeping with the theme.
• From Mike Chambers on 2020-08-24 at 4:04am:
  A very good episode. A little slow in parts, but excellent character development all around. The scenes with Picard and his brother are very well written and moving.
  
  A nice breather from the action and intensity after The Best Of Both Worlds.
  
  7/10 from me.
• From Encounter at Obamberg on 2023-05-03 at 4:02pm:
  The french have english accents because french is just an obscure language in the 24th century! Come on, this great continuity.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Vlad on 2006-03-31 at 9:11pm:
  When I want to introduce a non-trekker to the world of Star Trek I make them watch this episode. Isn't this a marvelous compliment? To me this is Star Trek at its best. The idea that we must find unity even if we must pay the ultimate price is extraordinary and oh so resonant in this day and age.
  
  But the philosophy of the piece is really presented through Picard. On a personal level he makes a new friend... and loses him, but in the end comes to understand his sacrifice. As a Starfleet officer, he is given a tough assignment, but he manages to do what he does best - preserve the piece and help bring about mutual understanding. On a universally human level we are left to ponder a very difficult question: Would we do the same if we were in the place of the Tamarian captain?
  
  Now, if only I could find the way to communicate to my mom just how good this episode is and make her watch it with me ;)
  
• From Pete Miller on 2006-04-14 at 7:24pm:
  Problem: If the language is based solely on reference to myth and history, then how does a child learn what happened in these myths? The language can only be spoken by referencing to something that both communicating parties are familiar with.
  
  A fine episode, but it just seems like speaking only in metaphor is an extremely improbable form of communication.
• From Bob Bracegirdle on 2006-08-04 at 10:10am:
  I could never see why Picard deciphered the language but for years previously the Federation had tried without success. Apparently they never even got the idea of metaphor. Were they stupid? I jumped to that conclusion within seconds of hearing it at the beginning of the episode - clearly a greek myth allusion.
• From benq on 2006-12-05 at 7:53pm:
  Darmok is another one of those episodes that reminds us that other races don't value life and freedom the same way we do. The language barrier is a poor excuse for the inciting incident of stranding Picard and the Tamarian captain on the planet with a disappearing beast, and even the explanation of the language barrier is dubious, given the historical overtones of every language. It has its place in the season 5 arch, but Darmok is probably one of the worst executed TNG stories that nevertheless touch us.
• From DSOmo on 2007-09-04 at 9:07am:
  Data and Troi deduce that the Tamarians speak in metaphor when they cross-reference the proper names "Darmok" and "Tenagra" to a mythological account from one of the planets nearby. After they give this information to Riker, Troi claims that communication is hopeless, since all they know is that Darmok was a hunter and Tenagra an island. If they know that Darmok is a mythological hunter, doesn't it seem likely that they would have access to some of the stories about him? Out of those stories, they might find something they could use.
• From KStrock on 2009-01-27 at 2:55pm:
  How could they have cultural stories on file about a race with whom they have no prior relationship?
• From Wes on 2010-05-07 at 7:07pm:
  You make a great point about Starfleet uniform code with Ro's earring and Worf's sash. Another interesting thing is that Mr. Mott said that he cut Commander Riker's hair a few days earlier. Look at Riker's hair. Sure doesn't look like he recently got a haircut. In fact, looks to me like he is due for one.
• From Vinny on 2010-07-29 at 8:41pm:
  Call it absurd fanboyism, but the one thing I remember clearly from seeing this episode the first time is totally falling in love with Robin Lefler, the first on-screen performace Ashley Judd ever made. Ah, the agony... I would have SO traded places with Wil Wheaton in the episode "The Game".
• From tigertooth on 2010-10-20 at 9:53pm:
  To me it seemed as if the Tamarians lacked verbs. They used nouns, prepositions, and adjectives, but I don't recall any verbs. That was kind of interesting.
  
  But as a previous commenter said, the idea that they could speak only in references seems far-fetched.
• From Quando on 2011-08-12 at 10:20pm:
  My question is this. How did a species with a language like this ever manage to develop the technology of space travel? I mean, how do you explain the technical specifications for building a warp core (or even a Model T) using only analogy to mythical figures? How would you even ask someone to hand you a tool? "Kinta, his 3/8" wrench open, his eyes red"! How do you talk about things like return on investment, varying interest rates, detailed medical procedures, etc. The whole language only seems suited to conveying basic ideas and emotions. It seems to me that a species with a language like this would never advance beyond the basic tribal hunter-gatherer stage.
• From Will on 2011-10-29 at 1:55am:
  The fact that you can rate this episode a 10 after all of the times you downrate episodes for bad science astounds me. As Quando and Pete have pointed out, the main premise of this story is scientifically implausible. I, for one, believe that the implausible is at the core of what science fiction should be, but based on your attitude toward episodes with such absurd science as this thus far, it seems unfair to be giving this episode a 10.
• From Kethinov on 2011-10-30 at 1:22am:
  Will,
  
  There's nothing fundamentally unsound about a language arising in this way. The fact that it's extremely improbable is an asset to the story in that the universal translator can translate the literal meaning of the words spoken but not the true meaning of their metaphorical basis.
  
  While I realize that it is hard to imagine a society being capable of functioning this way or developing advanced technology, I don't necessarily think it's beyond the bounds of realism, especially if you assume that the Tamarians have brains which more intuitively grasp metaphor or that there is a crucially emotive characteristic to the language.
  
  For instance, how a metaphor is stated and what body language is used may be just as important as what metaphor was used. The episode itself concludes by acknowledging that further study of the language would have to be done to fully grasp all its nuances. Just because the episode doesn't give us all the answers doesn't mean that no answer is workable.
  
  Since, in my judgement, the technical issues presented by the language aren't unworkable, the omissions of detail are not sufficiently distracting to the story, and the story itself is an outstanding piece of drama and science fiction, I stand by my classification of the episode's perfect score.
• From packman_jon on 2012-05-13 at 10:33pm:
  Very good episode. Tough to really get into, but this episode really rewards the viewer.
• From RM on 2012-08-03 at 7:33pm:
  This is one of the episodes that I like to watch even though they don't make terribly much sense. It is sufficiently suspenseful and has its good moments, definitely resulting in an entertaining episode that does more than show mindless battles.
  
  On the downside, the presented concept of the language never seemed convincing to me. I don't refute the idea that a civilization might base many of its expressions on metaphors (you could say that so do we in some respects; think of expressions like "a Valentine to all fans"). When talking about complex topics without requiring infinite time, many of the metaphor references might have to be "compressed", but possibly what we saw in the episode was sufficient for efficient communication. Likewise, the problem of how to describe the meaning of a metaphor in the first place does indeed exist, but this might indeed be achieved with a limited vocabulary.
  
  My two major gripes, however, were on the one hand how the language can possibly include references to off-world myths even for basic concepts. Does that mean the language only evolved after the Tamarians got in touch with cultures from other planets? Highly doubtful. On the other hand, I always wondered why the federation would be able to correctly translate prepositions and a few nouns when the meaning of the statements was unknown in the first place. How could a translator trying to figure out an unknown language (no matter whether it's a computer program like the universal translator or a living being doing that work) possibly know that in a sentence like "Shaka, when the walls fell." (note that what we see as English is actually incomprehensible Tamarian here) there's a proper name "Shaka" and four single words that mean "when the walls fell"? Wouldn't that translator recognize the same indicators used when deciphering other alien language that the topic is "failure" and then consider "Shakawhenthewallsfell" as one word, meaning "failure"?
  
  As much as forgotten Earth colonies are a trope that should be avoided, I'm convinced that the language trouble would have been a great deal more plausible if the Tamarians had originally been from Earth. That way, they could have used English words while the meaning of the sentences still wouldn't have been clear.
• From TheAnt on 2013-11-02 at 7:33pm:
  Cpt Picard on Forbidden planet.
  
  This is indeed one excellent episode.
  And even though Picard suspected that there would be a duel, I did assume that the alien indeed were proposing that they were going for a hunt as a means of building bridges between the two peoples.
  I've never lost a limb on a mountainside and as certain as the bear crap in the woods there had to be a monster challenge - one that had me think of the invisible beast from Forbidden planet.
  
  I found the comment by Pete Miller amusing since his name suggest he is from a culture that have a language that indeed use a lot of metaphors in daily use.
  Even so both the British and Americans are able to learn their language - also myself. So I do not see any problem in that respect.
  
  There's several examples on Earth of languages such as synesthetic ones, where the universal translator would be a lead balloon.
  So why not for one completely different species that have grown up on one isolated planet.
  
  And no actor but Patrick Stewart could have done the summary of the Gilgamesh epic as well as here. A solid 10 as certain as the pope wear a funny hat. :)
• From Axel on 2015-02-21 at 11:16pm:
  This has to be one of the most innovative episodes in sci-fi TV history. I agree with above comments about this being ST at its best. However, I think a lot of the concerns about the Tamarian language can be explained.
  
  In RM's case: consider that the Tamarian captain is best able to understand Picard when Picard is telling the tale of the Gilgamesh epic. It seems the Tamarian brain can process the language of other cultures through this narrative format, even if they don't yet know all the details of the story. This may be why Darmok, a mytho-historical hunter from Shantil 3, is part of the Tamarian linguistic database. Perhaps that legend became incorporated into Tamarian culture and language over time.
  
  There are other concerns too. For instance, how do the Tamarians handle certain basic day-to-day tasks, like "Hey, can you see if the engine coolant levels are good to go?" One explanation is that just as humans rely on metaphor in rare situations, perhaps Tamarians use literal language only when absolutely necessary, such as explaining a technical concept. Another explanation is that Tamarians may have invented their own stories that correspond to mathematical and scientific principles, in the form of music, history, and mythology.
  
  But this is all part of the fun. Star Trek presents us with an alien race that communicates through mythological and historical reference, and lets us fill in the blanks through our own imagination. Isn't that the whole point of sci-fi? A beautifully created episode, and a wonderful contribution to TV.
• From K on 2017-01-30 at 3:33pm:
  Regarding the phasers from the torpedo tube. I always thought they had purposely done that, as the modifications to do the needed damage required them to construct some sort of custom array that they mounted in the torpedo tube.
  
  Alas I noticed on the re-mastered HD version that that scene has changed to have the phasers firing from the dorsal array.
  
• From jeffenator98 on 2019-12-19 at 6:14pm:
  One of my top 5 all time star trek episodes.10/10

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Rich Dixon on 2006-04-20 at 10:37pm:
  Patrick Stewart never quite fully received the accolades and recognition from the Emmy's for his portrayal of Jean Luc Picard during his stint on TNG. The show as a whole was disregarded come Emmy time. We all know the reason why. It was a science fiction show, syndicated no less. In the early 90s, there was no way in hell a sci-fi show would be nominated for best drama on TV. Now in the 21st century, things have changed of course. Shows on Cable TV are routinely nominated. I still wonder if TNG and Stewart would garner nominations even still today. Not that the Emmy's are the end all to be all. My point is this. Somebody had to give this man an award! Stewart's performance in this episode was a tour de force. It was just stunning. The Inner Light although simplistic in its story telling, encompassed everything that Star Trek represents. The aliens in this episode will never be forgotten. At least not for Picard, who was controlled by an alien probe from a world long since vanished. During a span of 25-30 minutes, he lives a lifetime of another man complete with a loving wife and two kids. He watches them grow up along with the decaying of his planet. We watch as Picard stubbornly and defiantly refuses to play along with these people who seem to believe he's another man. Eventually, Picard assumes the life of this man and leads the life he never had and longed for. He has a family. He has a companion who is loyal, patient and nurturing. Picard's brilliant mind leads him to find ways to save his planet to no avail. Ultimately, the aliens reveal themselves and inform Picard the truth about themselves and their planet. This was their way of being remembered. What an effective way to let others understand who you are. Let them live a lifetime as one of you. One of the most moving and touching scenes came at the end, in Picard's ready room. Riker walks in and gives the captain the only contents that were found in the alien probe. A flute Picard learned to play as this other man. When Picard was first abducted, he didn't even know how to hold it properly. As Riker leaves the captain to his thoughts, Picard stares out the window. He begins to play it with a feeling and passion that conveys everything we need to know. These memories will stay with him forever. This is an excellent episode. It's the very reason why I loved this show.
• From Pete Miller on 2006-05-05 at 3:08am:
  Is it just me or does the second version of picard (aged once) look a hell of a lot like Jimmy Buffett?
• From Pete Miller on 2006-07-18 at 10:30pm:
  Sorry to come back and post again, but after I finished the series I decided to award my personal Best episode of TNG award.
  
  When I picked my "Best of..." episodes, I took into consideration what each series was really about. The Next Generation is truly about exploring the unexplored, discovering new people and cultures, and above all self-improvement. It is not like DS9, which focuses on more darker themes and contains more action. The Next Generation aims to paint an optimistic picture of the future, and to affect its audiences profoundly.
  
  The Inner Light accomplished all of TNG's goals. It is a masterful story of the tragic death of an entire species whose sun went supernova. The culture is not lost, however, but preserved through the memories of Picard, who is a changed man. It is a story of life in general, and of growing old and losing loved ones. The bottom line, though, is that the future is a bright one, and those things that we may consider to be lost causes today may yet live on in the future.
  
  This was a very moving performance by Patrick Stewart, the best actor to ever grace Star Trek. It was a perfectly written story, demonstrating the awesomeness of TNG's writers. I cannot subtract any points from anything, and the episode basically epitomizes TNG.
  
  It is with all of these things in consideration that I bestow my "Best of TNG" award to "The Inner Light". As soon as I finish Voyager I'll re-evaluate all episodes to find the best overall.
• From DSOmo on 2007-10-05 at 7:29am:
  This is one of my favorite TNG episodes of all time. That is not correct. This is one of my favorite Star Trek episodes of all time! Jean-Luc Picard is one of my favorite Star Trek characters (it doesn't hurt having an amazing actor like Patrick Stewart playing the part.) However, yes, I have even "discovered" a problem with this episode.
  - This is a society with the technological level of midtwentieth-century Earth. It manufactured a device that can create an alternate reality within an unknown alien mind. Look at what this probe accomplishes. It scans the Enterprise and overpowers the ship's shields. It finds Picard and attaches an energy beam to him. This energy beam creates an alternate reality so complete that "it is as real as his life on the Enterprise." Does this sound like a project undertaken by a community who have just begun to launch missles? In the late 1950s, if the nations of Earth discovered that the Sun would soon explode, is it even conceivable that those nations would be able to build such a device?
• From baron on 2010-12-11 at 7:49pm:
  After watching this I found the society that he lived in pretty unbelievable. All Picard seems to do is play his flute and look through a telescope. How did he raise a family just by doing that? Wouldn't he need a job and income of some kind? This isn't a futuristic society with food replicators and unlimited energy. They say they have to grow crops. Towards the end they say the crops are failing. Where are they getting their food from then? They say it takes a day just to send a message to the next village. It's pretty impossible that society could have built the probe in the first place.
  
  In an earlier episode someone mentioned that it would have been to impossible for a time traveler from the past to take a phaser and try to manufacture it back in his own society. Since their society wouldn't have the infrastructure in place to be able to manufacture it. Perhaps a phaser needs a mineral from another star system but they don't have the ability to leave their planet. But yet in this episode a 1950's era society can make technology more advanced than the enterprise.
• From Autre on 2011-03-04 at 7:32pm:
  They are aliens, and regardless if they are in a 1950's era situation they are much different from humans. Rather than creating atomic bombs or weapons to destroy one another they all banded together as a race with a single goal in mind.
  
  If you were to take every scientist in the world and work them to one cause it is very likely something astounding would come from it.
  
  But again, the main point behind this is that they are aliens, and TNG has many episodes with aliens that appear to not be advanced but turn out having technological marvels.
• From Robert Koenn on 2011-04-29 at 3:46pm:
  This was a very good episode but not nearly my favorite. In fact I rated it a 7. Stewart did do an excellent job of acting in the episode. But why I lowered my rating was that I did not find the scenario and the overall plot that exciting. While I could also say it was technically absurd, a race that seems to live a simple agrarian existence creating this marvelously advanced spacecraft that was launched on a very basic solid fueled rocket, that is not really my main complaint. It just wasn't that exciting or even enticing to watch Picard live this imaginary life. I am not a particular fan of massive doses of action or such but found this more of a soap operaish plot line. It appears I am the minority in this take on the episode but those were my thoughts while watching it. I found the interplay between characters much more interesting in the episode where Picard returns home and visits his brother.
• From Alvlin on 2011-05-27 at 3:45am:
  I agree with Baron. While this is a great episode both emotionally & executionally, logically it has a HUGE flaw -- there is no way that such a "technologically primitive" society could manufacture & launch a probe that would be able to pierce the defenses of a ship 1,000 years into the future, not to mention reach directly into Picard's mind and play out a scenario based on his own reactions. A real strech which unfortunately hurts the overall credibility of this one.
• From Bronn on 2011-09-25 at 5:33am:
  I just want to comment on some of the scientific critique's of this episode. One of the reasons I can buy is that I don't necessarily think their technology had to evolve at a similar rate to ours. Just because they weren't advanced in the field of space travel doesn't mean they weren't advanced in other areas-they just may not have been interested in space travel. It's worth wondering how interested humanity would be in space travel if this planet had no moon. The extreme advance of technology during the space race is partly owed to the existence of an easily definable objective: Let's put a human on the closest celestial object. It helps also to have such a close orbit body to fuel the curiosity of planet-dwellers, to give them an actual urge to reach space.
  
  What we see of the planet during this episode also represents a single agrarian community. It's not necessarily the best cross-section. If you visited 20th century Earth and all you saw was a farming community in Nebraska, you might not catch on that we can generate nuclear power, or that there is a laboratory in Geneva that can isolate atoms of anti-hydrogen. The native culture in this episode may have simply had some specialization in ways to affect brain chemistry, and this was a technology unique to their development.
  
  "But how does it pierce the defenses of the USS Enterprise!?" Well it's just possible that the Enterprise's defenses aren't designed to defeat the specific thing that the probe was doing. The shields are designed to repel only specific types of energy, and presumably solid objects (there are many inconsistencies with THAT). The shields clearly allow certain types of energy to pass through-as evidenced by the fact that the crew can actually see out a window even with the shields are activated, so visible light is not stopped by the shields. The crew is also still able to use communication frequencies with the shields up, so perhaps other parts of the EM spectrum are not screened out. It's not like this beam utterly defeats the Enterprise, since it takes the crew a whopping 5 minutes to figure out how to interrupt it (if that)-they are only stopped because removing it nearly kills Picard.
  
  Okay, so there's a little bit of a hand-waving in that the probe apparently "scans" the crew, or least has some method of identifying that there are life forms on board the Enterprise, and it manages to isolate one to communicate with, but it's not like we ever learn much about how the USSE itself scans for lifeforms. There's not really an issue with bad science in this episode, at least not enough to destroy willful suspension of disbelief, unless you're just looking for reasons not to like it.
• From Rob on 2013-01-27 at 6:05am:
  I love this episode, it could be my own personal experiences that leads me to this but it seems to me to be an analogy to a psychedelic induced state of mind wherein the 'traveller' can experience an entire lifetime in the blink of an eye.
  
  Once returning to their original understanding of their reality and normal perspectives there is a struggle, a conflict between the person they were before the event, the person they were during the event and who they need to be to move on from the event. Everything that took place was easily as real as the present and past to them, completely linked with emotions and feelings as real as any other memory in their mind.
  
  The only way for the traveller to move on is to merge the persona they lived into their ego, challenge the resistance from the higher ego and accept that they experienced a true existence and that perception combined with perspective is all there is, we accept our current one as the only one in order to live.
  
  This analogy would have been complete if after returning to the enterprise when Picard was given the flute he was able to play it as proficiently as he did in the mental projection.
• From skye_sken on 2013-03-28 at 12:31am:
  Just thought to comment on the allegations that a civilization such as theirs could not produce the technology needed for the probe to exist: I always figured the dreamworld that Picard experiences is rather an ideal representation of this people, or perhaps a "play" of a sort, rather than a full-on realistic portrayal of the advanced civilization they fostered just before the supernova event which eradicated it's people.
  
  When you think of it, some might say that a fine way to express one's civilization would be through art. It can be argued that technology is kind of homogenic in the way that any alien species can produce the same quantative results and inventions, whereas art I would suppose is always subjective and thus unique. I mean, showing aliens a play by Shakespeare would cover an immense amount of human emotions, those we hold so dear to us, and in a way sleek the image of humanity for the alien specators (after all, not many of us would sooner paint impressions of war, rape, extortion and other realistic qualities expressed by mankind).
  
  As someone before me noted, Picard doesn't seem to be doing any work, well, expect for his scientific research, which I guess many a folk do care for, and might deem important enough to sustain through their own labor. In the INNER LIGHT, art plays a key role in cultural preservation. In the dreamworld, we see art approached in the manner of the flute Picard gradually learns to play, the music of which in a way is a strong symbol of the lost people and a means to immortalize a part of their civilization.
  
  While we're making assumptions, I guess it's possible that if Picard's dreamworld was indeed a play, it was not entirely truthful, and this civilization never actually disappeared in a super nova after all; Picard just became a buffoon of an elaborate cosmic jape. But that's not nearly as romantic an idea, so forget it.
• From railohio on 2014-07-27 at 3:03pm:
  You guys are forgetting that while the probe was advanced, it certainly did not overpower the enterprise. The enterprise could have easily destoyed it, or severed the link (which they did), but they wouldn't because it would have been fatal to Picard. Even before he was connected by the beam, the Enterprise's mission is to explore new life and civilizations, so they could not simply destroy it on sight.
  
  As far as creating the probe in the 1st place. We can say the beginning of the episode took place somewhere in the 1950's. He lived almost a full life on Katan so it is feasible to say 40 years passed. That would put the society somewhere in the 1990s. With 1990s technology, it was seem like a far stretch to create such a device. However with the entirety of the planet working on such a desperate cause, one can conclude that it is somewhat possible to create something like this.
  
  Overall I loved this episode, and found it extremely interesting. A solid 9
• From Axel on 2015-03-25 at 3:53am:
  I'm in the minority that didn't enjoy this episode, and it's not because of the technological issues discussed above. It's because I really can't believe Picard or anyone else doesn't give a second thought to the ethics of what the Kataan have done.
  
  This probe is designed to take control of a person's conscious, force that person to relive a lifetime with the Kataan, and then awaken that person after making clear that this experience was just a recreation designed to keep the memory of their civilization alive. So twice you are confronted with years and years of your life being an illusion. The first time would be enough to make anyone question their own sanity. As for the second round of news at the end, Picard takes it pretty well. But the Kataan seem not to have considered (or cared) that others might not handle it that well. A person could leave this entire experience with serious mental and emotional problems rather than fond memories. Many might not have adjusted to living with the Kataan in the first place.
  
  Maybe the Kataan think that the collective memory of their civilization is worth all of this. But that issue is never really explored. Instead, Picard is released from his fake probe life as a happy man with a flute, never once wondering about the roller-coaster the Kataan just put him through.
  
  The acting in this episode is superb, not just Stewart but the guests as well. Still, the details of Picard's life with the Kataan isn't enough to redeem this one for me, nor was it interesting enough to put the episode's plot above average.
• From Harrison on 2016-06-25 at 11:50pm:
  A dramatic masterpiece, by far the best episode of any of the Star trek series. Stewart's performance is simply magnificent.
  
  Of course it is easy as pie to poke holes in the sci-fi logic underpinning the plot. That's true with any episode in the series, and it is hardly significant in light of the outstanding screenplay, character formation and plain old dramatic compulsion. A little suspension of disbelief won't harm you, and in the laws of the Star trek universe, there's nothing terribly difficult to accept.
• From dominic on 2016-06-26 at 5:11am:
  The thought did cross my mind that such a primitive society shouldnt' have been able to build such an advanced piece of technology in the probe, but I was able suspend my disbelief and get over that.
  
  What really bothers me about this episode is what Axel mentioned above. Surely the victim of this probe is put through an unfathomable amount of emotional trauma...not once, but twice. When Captain Picard "came back" and they asked him to go sickbay, I was totally expecting him to say something like "I don't need to go to sickbay. I need to see Counselor Troi." Not only did he not say that, but he didn't even see her. Was she even in this episode? Seems like a huge oversight to not have her play a more important role.
• From Chris on 2018-02-11 at 3:02am:
  I, like most folks, love this episode. An easy 10.
  
  If we here on earth were faced with a similar fate, I'm certain that once the religious idiots got out of the way, we could build something exactly like they did! ... and with current technology to start with!
  
  There are lots of study into mind reading technology going on right now and so nothing in this show is too much of a stretch for me.
  
  People always define other, alien technical abilities using humans as their benchmark and that is simply nonsensical to attempt. There is no context with which to base another alien's technical level and so leave it alone.
  
  I would have preferred if the aliens had done the probe to two people instead of just one. Like Axel, I think a person could seriously come out of an experience like this questioning one's sanity, and so having someone else come along for the ride would've been better I think.
  
  I have no problems with the food issues either. It's called C-Rations! ;-)
  
  Easily my favorite episode!
• From CAlexander on 2019-04-01 at 3:38am:
  Just watched this episode again, and it is even better when re-watched. This episode is too beautiful to care about the logic problems.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Wolfgang on 2006-07-10 at 1:04pm:
  Remarkable Scenes
  
  -Lieutenant Picard !
• From JRPoole on 2008-09-18 at 3:58pm:
  There's not a whole lot to complain about here, but I'm not as smitten with this episode as many fans are.
  
  It's great to see Picard's past, and his evolving relationship with Q is certainly interesting. But I find the It's-A-Wonderful-Life theme of this episode is a bit heavy-handed and explained to death. I also think they could have done a better job writing the characters of the young Picard's friends, who both seem pretty broadly drawn and never really elevate out of stereotype.
  
  Still, this is solid, and I can definitely see the charm, but I can't list it as one of the absolute best episodes. I guess I'll have to wait until I finish the series to make that call, though.
• From Dennis on 2013-04-02 at 10:05pm:
  I couldn't wait for this one to be over, and I've never felt that way about any other episode. The stupid costumes and make up. The over the top acting by Picard's adversary's, Q, all of it just stupid. The story had nothing to do with the theme of Star Trek. It could have easily been an episode of Mayberry RFD. Sorry if I'm a little heavy handed but they can flush this one.
• From dominic on 2016-08-19 at 1:04am:
  Problems: Q let Picard go back and put things back the way they were originally, so how did he end up surviving his present-day injury? A pretty glaring one IMO.
• From Cal on 2017-02-27 at 12:39pm:
  Q was involved, he can give and take life at any moment, so Picard's injury isn't an issue. Maybe Beverly saved him, maybe the whole injury thing was set up by Q in the first place, so it's hardly a problem. I adore the episode.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-07-22 at 5:12am:
  "But why?"
  
  "He was cardassian. That's reason enough."
  
  A line that certainly is a microcosm of the current conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Eventually the killing goes on for so long that both sides don't even know why they do it, except that the other side is their adversary.
• From JTL on 2008-08-03 at 11:35pm:
  A supremely touching episode; when Marritza breaks down at the end there I don't think I've ever felt such sympathy for a character in a television series. The only reason I wouldn't normally give this episode a 10 is because Marritza's death is (while perhaps necessary) very rushed and, as you said, too easy. However this was much too moving as to not get a 10.
• From Thorsten Wieking on 2008-09-02 at 12:54pm:
  What struck me while watching the first season a second time in this episode and episode "Dax" is the fact that obviously there is still the death penalty imposed on Worlds belonging to or becoming a member of the Federation. I for one thought that this punishment has been abolished at least in the future UFP.
  
  Cheers
  Thorsten
• From Bernard on 2010-01-12 at 12:16am:
  Beautifully constructed episode, brilliantly performed.
  
  Enough said!
  
  Seriously though, it seems like they saved the best stuff for the last two episodes. You have to wonder what was going on for most of the season when they can produce this standard of episode that rivals anything TNG could do for emotional impact and profound messages.
• From MJ on 2011-02-09 at 9:39pm:
  This ranks as one of my favorite DS9 episodes of all time.
  
  It's brilliance has already been pointed out by the other reviews here. My only other thought is that I can't think of a single other TV series in science-fiction or elsewhere that produced such a stunningly and powerfully dramatic episode in its first season. I must admit, when I first watched DS9, I was not prepared for this episode based on what I'd seen. And Moritza's breakdown loses absolutely none of its power with repeated viewing, the sign of a truly great episode.
  
  Even TNG, which I still tend to like better, did not produce such a moving episode until its second season (Measure of a Man). Pure brilliance...
• From John on 2011-12-07 at 3:49am:
  While the rest of the characters are well utilized, particularly the brilliantly-written Marritza, the weak link (as usual) is Kira. No surprise there, as she is one of the most irritating and one-dimensional characters in the entire Star Trek canon. Her constantly over-dramatic indignation gets very tired very quickly, and detracts from an otherwise gripping episode.
  
  
• From Jimmy on 2019-08-22 at 1:32am:
  
  For me simply the best Star Trek episode ever written! Excellent acting all around. Captivating and riveting dialogue. Not one punch thrown, not one phaser fired, not one explosion. The current people working on Star Trek could learn a lot from this episode.
• From Abigail on 2019-09-01 at 6:02pm:
  Great episode!
  
  Kira was super annoying in this episode.
  
  But still, it was great!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2006-07-09 at 1:16am:
  I give All Good Things a 10 overall. I did not rate Part 1 and Part 2, since I watch it on DVD and have no idea where the halfway point is.
  
  The episode itself is actually better than all the TNG movies. Everything about it is genius. Having the episode take place in three time periods is genius. Having the episode be a sequel to the very first episode is genius. I always look forward to watching it again.
• From Tony on 2008-09-09 at 4:23am:
  The whole idea of working among diferent time periods and Picard in that "one moment" open to new posibilities and things to explore is great, but there is one problem: the movies and series set after this episode in time seem to show that humanity didn't expand in ways predicted in this episode and just settled back into their old ways. Admittedly, our current minds are not highly evolved enough to comprehend such endevers, but it does seem odd that both humanity doesn't advance (except maybe in VOY: Relativity dealing with an even farther future) and that the Q doesn't seem to care. This is not a strike against this episode, but a strike against future episodes relating to this episode.
• From JRPoole on 2008-11-05 at 8:09pm:
  I just finished the entire TNG series, so this is a review of the series as a whole as well as a comment on this episode.
  
  "All Good Things" is phenomenal. It's intelligently written, fleshes out the characters well, and filled with fanboy fun stuff that doesn't get in the way of a good episode. I gave it a 10.
  
  TNG overall was also solid. Like the original series, it had its lame moments, but it was able to take the original concept and turn it into a sleek, intelligent show that took itself seriously but was still still fun. The best moments of TNG ("Measure of a Man," "The Inner Light," the Klingon saga episodes, the Borg invasion, Wesley's continuing journey to higher astral planes, et al) get at the heart of what Trek was really about. Now I'm looking forward to seeing DS9. I've seen a good bit of it, but a lot of it will be new to me.
• From djb on 2009-04-03 at 8:20am:
  I loved the 3D space battle scene. Unfortunately throughout most of Trek, the potential allowed by the three dimensions of space is wasted and most everything is in two dimensions, as if they were in a ship on the ocean. The brief battle scene here with the Enterprise arriving from a totally different angle and orientation was brilliant, and I wish we could have seen more battle scenes like that.
• From Ali on 2009-04-12 at 4:21pm:
  I love this episode too, but I think the science is a little bit iffy.
  
  Since Picard establishes that changes in timelines don't affect each other (i.e. Deanna doesn't recall him ordering a red alert on his first mission), then the fact that the first amino acid doesn't bond in the past shouldn't affect their known future or present...
  
  Multiple Universe Theories generally say that if an event is changed in the past, it will not alter the present; rather, create a new alternate Universe with that decision. And since there are infinite universes that exist where life did not end up occurring on earth, it wouldn't be that amazing. Life would have continued as normal to their perspective...
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2011-10-01 at 1:49pm:
  If it's a 10, why isn't a candidate for your "Best TNG Episode" award?
• From Kethinov on 2011-10-07 at 6:49am:
  Both parts of the episode would have had to be rated 10 for it to be considered.
• From Vlad on 2012-02-13 at 3:49pm:
  This is one of my favourite episodes in all of Star Trek, but one little problem kills the magic for me...
  
  An early draft of the script, which was discarded for budget reasons, had the future crew stealing the Enterprise from a museum. Which meant that they started the search for the anomaly in the Enterprise and not the Pasteur.
  
  In the final version of the script they were on the Pasteur.
  
  Later, present-day Data says that the resonance pulses (or whatever they were called) inside the anomaly were identical "as if all three originated from the Enterprise".
  
  But they didn't!
  
  Anyway, aside from this little nitpick I have with the episode it's a fantastic send-off for TNG.
• From michael on 2012-08-07 at 10:03pm:
  If the anti-time reaction in the future goes backwards in time - how were they able to see it in the future? From the point of origin it travels backwards. From the perspective of linear time it would be impossible for anyone perceiving the forwards movement of time to see a reaction that moves precisely in the opposite direction?
• From Captain Keogh on 2013-03-17 at 10:38am:
  I loved this episode, just saw it on 26.12.2012 and thought it was brilliant, I gave it a 10.
• From thaibites on 2013-04-16 at 11:41pm:
  This is a great send-off for TNG. It's obvious a lot of thought was put into this episode. For example, I love the shot of Baby-face Riker they lifted from the 1st season. It was ingenious how they had new audio from Frakes while the shot shows Picard looking at the monitor, and then cuts back to Riker actually saying something from the season 1 footage. It was seamless and shows a lot of attention to detail.
  But the bigger aspect here is that All Good Things is what Star Trek is all about - pushing frontiers and going where no one (man) has gone before. Plus there's a lot at stake here - the existence of humanity (and the existence of every species between Earth and the Neutral Zone). This is awesome science fiction and TNG at its best!
• From L on 2013-05-09 at 12:32pm:
  This definitely was a great finale, epic and exciting. But a little frustrating too.
  
  Why do the Q continuum continue to torture Picard? They create some nonsensical dilemma and accuse Picard of being the cause when it was solely due to them that the crisis existed in the first place, just so they can force him to make some grand act they approve of.
  I thought the dilemma and its solution was totally irrational and may as well have been a dream, but it is implied that to evolve humanity must stop exploring real world science and technology and devote more time to this sort of thing. It seems they want to hold them back more than anything.
  I was annoyed at Q seeming to revert back to his earlier character after all they'd been through together, but felt better when it turns out he was acting under orders and did try to help after all.
  
  It was awesome seeing how irritable Picard was as an old man, and seeing Troi in a mini-skirt. It was a shame Guinan didn't make an appearance for the last episode.
  The last scene was perfect and uplifting.
• From Dstyle on 2013-09-23 at 3:03pm:
  This episode first aired when I was in middle school, and I remember being very annoyed at the fact that the anomaly, which is supposed to be moving backwards in time, was somehow moving forward in time after it was created. It was the first time I ever noticed any logical inconsistencies in my favorite show (which is kind of funny now, looking back on all the various logical inconsistencies throughout TNG's run), and it still hinders my enjoyment of this episode. But I guess it would have taken too much screen time for the future crew to create the static warp bubble in the past by slingshotting around a sun or something.
  
  I've always wondered why star ships always seem to be on the same plane when they run into each other, so it was good to see the future Enterprise approach and attack perpendicular to the Klingon Birds of Prey. Shame future Star Trek's didn't continue with this.
  
  Everyone thinks future Picard is crazy, but they inexplicably (or perhaps touchingly) humor him because he is Jean-Luc Picard. He refuses a brain scan at Cambridge, insisting instead that they immediately get a ship to the neutral zone. The "present day" crew, on the other hand, believe Picard completely, in part because Beverley was able to show (via two brain scans) that he had accrued two days worth of memories in a matter of hours. Why didn't future Picard immediately insist on the same brain scans? Wouldn't it have been much, much easier to get everyone on board with him (and to avoid being sedated) by easily providing evidence that what he was saying was true?
  
  Future Geordi is married to a woman named Leah. Leah Brahms, perhaps?
• From Jai Parker on 2014-07-10 at 2:11am:
  After a generally disappointing Season 7 TNG ends with a massive bang! Easily the best finale of any Trek series and 20 years on this is still one of the best grand finale's of any TV series IMO.
  
  I just wish they'd left the story here, rather than trying to reinvent TNG as a series of half baked sci-fi action films with a horribly out-of-character Picard at the helm.
  
  As with the Star Wars prequels I pretend the TNG films didn't happen and it ended with "the sky's the limit!"
• From englanddg on 2014-08-02 at 8:40am:
  The only thing I'll add is that the previous episodes were all setting up for this, outside of summing up loose characters (as fan service).
  
  Many of the derided episodes (when taken on their own) are in fact building the audience to this climax...
  
  Where Picard finally loses his mind.
  
  It was a quite brilliant story arch, across episodes, while still paying fan service to characters in interesting ways as they writers knew the show was dead after this season.
  
  Extremely well done.
• From Mike Chambers on 2016-08-25 at 2:55pm:
  This has already been mentioned by another commenter, but I want to reiterate. The one thing that always bothered me about this otherwise amazing finale is, if the anomaly only grows backwards through time then how the heck were they able to go back several hours into the future and see it??
  
  It's been a while since I've watched this, so maybe I'm forgetting something but I don't recall any explanation for it. Seems like a pretty massive oversight.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JemHadar359 on 2007-06-27 at 5:22pm:
  The battle between the Enterprise-D and the Duras sisters' Bird Of Prey is in my opinion the best technical battle in Star Trek's history.
  
  However, it does have one flaw. Why didn't Riker order the Enterprise's shield nutation rotated after the Bird Of Prey hit them with the first photon torpedo?
  
  Of course, Riker's not doing this makes for a much more exciting sequence.
  
  I love the close-up on Riker when he says simply, "Fire."
• From Heldt on 2010-04-07 at 8:04pm:
  The mystical uniform change was intended. You may have noticed a slow starfleed uniform change in DS9 too.
  Of course not all starfleet members get new uniforms at once.
  
  My problems with the movie are:
  - Earth. Center of Starfleet. Ships are being built here. A few years ago they even tested Transwarp technology in one of the stations. And now no ship is near enough to this... Nexus-thingy? It's in the sol-system! There have to be at least three dozen ships full with cadets.
  - Why is this deflector control Kirk goes to about 100 m off the deflector? Why is he even going there? There must be people in the machine room specially trained for working with these controls. Or at least better trained as a old retired captain...
  - What the hell is Tuvok doing there? And where are his pointy ears?
  
  And that's only 10 Minutes...
• From curt on 2010-04-22 at 6:26am:
  This might be a dumb question, people were talking, and I didnt get to pay as much attention as I wanted to. But when kirk goes back time to meet that girl, it wasnt real, so why is it real when they go back to fight scene with Soran's missle launch? I'm sorry if the movie already addressed this, like I said i didnt get to pay total attention to it.
• From Deepblue on 2010-07-08 at 7:11pm:
  Definitely a thinking person's movie about loss and living past you're perceived usefulness. Kirk's death was foreshadowed in V, that he felt safe w/ Bones and Spock because he always believed he'd die alone, meaning without his comrades. I'm sure a fair amt. of fans woulda preferred fearless Kirk to go out guns blazing in battle but that would've seemed out of place for him in his older age having outlived his dangerous younger years.
  
  The mixed bag of uniforms is realistic to today like the previous commenter noted. Currently in US military, many military personnel in the same branch (if not in an active combat infantry role) have various color uniforms depending on how long they've been in. Newer personnel are issued the latest uniform, individuals with more seniority are given a choice of keeping older uniforms and/or adopting newer ones.
• From MJ on 2011-02-25 at 11:50pm:
  In my opinion, not a single one of the four TNG movies has a premise that makes sense. But, as TNG's movies go, this is probably the best.
  
  My problem with the premise here is that it's very hard to tell (as one review pointed out) what is part of the Nexus and what is not. The Nexus is explained to be a gateway to another dimension in which a person's thoughts and desires become reality. Picard fast forwards to the family life he never had, no doubt inspired by his brother and nephew's recent death reminding him of the importance of family. And Kirk finds himself reliving moments in his past with the opportunity to change their outcome. All of this is very interesting, but both captains recognize that what they experience is not real. When they go back to Veridian 3, do they actually leave the Nexus? They would have to for their actions to have real world consequences, but this is never made clear. This is a fundamental problem in the movie because it calls into question whether Picard and Kirk's actions were simply a part of their Nexus fantasy. Consider that, according to Riker, the mission shown at the film’s beginning is the real world incident in which James Kirk was killed. This would mean that there’s a serious problem in the timeline. And by the way, if Picard can request Kirk's help, what's stopping him from recruiting anybody else he wants? He could bring all kinds people to Veridian to help stop Soren, but for the story purpose it stops at Kirk.
  
  Putting all that aside, the movie has strong mythical overtones, is brilliantly shot and acted, filled with superb dialogue and character developments (particularly Data and his handling of emotion chip), and has visual effects that, when I first saw this movie, left me in awe of what Star Trek could be like with the transition from TV to film. I like how the movie gives us more details on Guinan's past; we've known for a long time now that the Borg destroyed her planet, and now we see the immediate aftermath, which makes for awesome continuity. I'm sure it was fun for Brent Spiner to change things up in this film, adding to the already enormous popularity of Data. I did think Picard's time with Kirk came at the expense of the rest of the TNG crew...most of them had fairly minor roles, certainly not what we're used to seeing from them.
  
  Overall, a nice start to the TNG film series. Unfortunately, each movie got progressively worse.
• From Bernard on 2011-02-27 at 1:48pm:
  First things first. The whole climax to the film is created by Dr. Soran firing a missile at a star that will change the gravitational whatever of that part of space... This means that the planet will be destroyed. But lets get this straight. The Nexus is missing the planet, unless the star is destroyed to divert the course of the Nexus. So to divert the course of the Nexus surely the shockwave would ALREADY have had to have passed by killing our heroes and Dr. Soran before he can even get into the Nexus.
  
  The film is filled with this kind of flawed logic, don't even get me started on the Nexus itself. It's an absolute mess. You could forgive these problems if the film was good enough, but sadly it isn't.
  
  Unfortunately, although this is a bad film, it is fairly consistant to Star Trek themes unlike the three sequels that follow so I'll give it some credit.
  
  There are so many good things in this film, it just feels like they've all been thrown in without any real thought. Another note to film directors and script writers, stop throwing cringeworthy attempts at humour into dark films (check out revenge of the sith for more of this). I love Brent Spiner as Data but this exploration of his humanity has been done to death during the series and has no place in the feature films. Unfortunately as the Next Gen films progress we continue to be fed Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner's personal ego trips.
  
  One thing that I read a lot of Trek fans bitching about is the way that Kirk's send of is carried out in this film. I don't have a problem with that at all. It's not an issue for me.
  
  Overall this film is a load of good stuff lumped together with no real thought. It has a decent premise, good acting (Malcolm Mcdowell is as good as any villain a Star Trek film has had), great sequences that they could not afford to do on the series, but too much clutter and crap. I'd give it a 6.
  
  
• From Seriously? on 2011-04-11 at 6:55pm:
  U gotta be kidding me! This is by far the worst Star Trek movie ever made! How can you defend this piece of crap?
  
  Here's a review worth its name, which treats the movie the way it deserves:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azSh47-oRPI&feature=related
  
  But even they didnt notice the biggest scientific mistake in this bad rip-off of a Star Trek movie. The gravitational effects of a star explosion would need at least a couple of minutes to even reach the nexus. In the movie that stupid space ribbon changes its course instantly.
  Even better, there would be no instant gravitational effects of that explosion, because no matter if the sun explodes or not, the matter is still there until it gets spread by the shockwave. As long as that shockwave didnt pass the planet, the only consequence is the light going off.
• From EvanT on 2011-06-25 at 12:12am:
  The three things that REALLY bugged me in this movie:
  
  1)Riker and Worf during the battle scene. Why didn't they rotate the shield harmonics? And on top of that, all they did was to fire a single phaser shot at the Bird of Prey. C'mon! How much punishment can that thing take? They seemed pretty fragile in DS9. And the Enterprise took a direct torpedo hit and it barely dented the hull (but a disruptor hit at the stardrive brings down half the bridge?). Riddle it with torpedoes and phaser shots. That oughta do it! They would've destroyed it before they had finished their diatribe on antique klingon cloak generator plasma coils. Yeesh.
  
  I'll agree that the crashing on the planet was cool though. How about using a stronger klingon ship then? A Vor'cha might be more of a challenge for a Galaxy class starship without shields! Who wrote that damn scene? And why are Lursa and Betor still alive? Shouldn't someone have tracked them down and killed them for causing a civil war by now?
  
  2) They reused the exploding Bird of Prey from the previous movie. Laaaame! I mean, how cheap can you get? Blow up a CG Bird of Prey! You've already blown up a planet, the stardrive, two stars and a science facility... how much modeling and rendering time would it take? This is just sloppy presentation.
  
  3)I didn't mind how Kirk died, but I did find it distasteful how he was buried. Here's a legendary captain that just gave his life in order to save a planet of millions. How can we possibly honour him?
  
  Let's bury him on a backwater planet under rocks, so the wild animals can easily feast on his rotting carcass. It's not like we could take a corpse back with us when we get evacuated from the planet. That would be just gross! ("Farragut, one person and a cadaver to beam up" <--see? distasteful!)
  
  The greatest captain of the 23rd century, if not in Starfleet history and he doesn't even get an on-screen eulogy or even a torpedo casing funeral.
  
  I mean... C'MON!
• From Inga on 2011-12-17 at 11:39pm:
  I have another problem - how come it only took Soran's rocket 11 seconds to reach the star? Either the planet is very close to it, or the rocket traveled faster than the speed of light...
• From b goldstein on 2012-01-08 at 5:54pm:
  The Opening scene with Kirk, Scotty, and Checkov just seemed out of character for all three -- this is because it was written for Spock and McCoy. It makes sense afterwards, but it was a terrible beginning that it was hard to get into the rest of the movie.
  
  So the rest of the movie was ruined for me because the plot felt so contrived.
• From L on 2013-05-13 at 4:40am:
  
  I loved the performance of the captain in the opening scene, as his moment of pride just turned to a nightmare.
  Lots of cool things, but plot-wise it's weak and more like a good series episode with a rushed end.
  They get out of the nexus way too easily. According to Guinan and the bad guy, it's indescribable joy, you'll forget everything you ever cared about and you'll do anything to stay there, even destroy inhabited solar systems, but the two captains just get bored and hop out.
  Or do they? I thought they were going to do a false reality plot twist, but then was disappointed when I realised it was the real ending to the movie.
  Still, it's Star Trek, so it's about enjoying the characters, not logic. Having both 'styles' of Star Trek in one movie was pretty awesome. And everything looked great, beautiful cinema-photography.
  
• From Richard on 2013-05-28 at 8:14am:
  I don't think changing the shield modulation would have worked, they might even have tried it off camera, as Geordi would have done it and the Klingons would have just matched them. If they changed once or twice and it had no effect, they wouldn't have known why and given up trying and just kept the ship together. The only problems I had were the speed of the final rocket (which I suppose could have had limited warp, but this was never even hinted at) and the change in gravitational forces without any change in mass, which is just impossible. Never-the-less, this is my favorite Star Trek film, I really like how it tied the two series together.
• From Kevin on 2013-12-15 at 2:17pm:
  This film really polarizes viewers for some reason. Maybe the most epic of all trek movies, with awesome action, acting, music, effects and BY FAR the biggest use of multiple locations. Honestly, I thought this movie was awesome,despite some confusion about when they were or were not in the nexus and some gravitational errors maybe.
  
  Overall, it did what STTNG was great at. An exciting story, with fun, adventure, something big happening, and FINALLY a "Bad Guy" that was simply bad, but realistic. Not some super meglamaniac that all the other movies tend to use, but an actual believable person that is just very greedy and obsessed, and seemed to have real motivations for what he does.
  
  Kirk wanted to die. That was his choice and I think it is made clear, despite many crying about how he died or where he was. A perfect movie, not really, but the most ambitious of all for sure!
  
  A must see epic.
• From parqbench on 2016-06-02 at 3:23pm:
  tahw dnafinish, but everything reviewers have pointed out was true. lots of logical problems, and lots of just lost potential in where they could've taken the plot. still, at least this is star trek that seems to have a grip on itself, somewhat realistic characters and some nice meditations on the finitude of life.
  
  i didn't have a trouble with "what is and what is not the nexus" because i knew the movie just wouldn't reach there, and could be confidently assumed to gamble on the safe, "happy" ending that the enterprise was actually saved (though kirk was not).
  
  i did wish the nexus was less matter of fact. i really was thinking some reality-bending, pull-apart-your-being crushing, consciousness-expanding/contracting, spiritual ego-death trip morality play/force of will battle of intellect and soul to escape this thing. even going for palatable, easy-to-follow scenes for a mass audience they could've made it more mysterious, but it kind of just feels like he woke up in a new place and that's it. shatner actually does a much better job of at least coming off as preoccupied--and strangely, almost uncharacteristically unconcerned with what's wrong. funny to say that he would be the better actor in this scenario, since usually it's the opposite (though i love you, man).
  
  anyway, funnily enough, the moment i read other posts asking the shield rotation question is the moment i realised i've become a true fan; i remember reading "gotchas" like that all the time and not really connecting the technobabble with anything tangible in any of the series, but after having rounded out most of the available star trek mythos, that was actually the first thing on my mind. "why don't they just rotate the freaking shield frequencies?" haha. at least this is an established premise in the ST universe. and all the klingons got was their *current* frequency, no? so it would have been an admitted gamble. and they could've framed it like that and been fine--"if we catch them unawares, we'll have a brief window to drive them away before they cycle frequencies." still, was a slow & interesting technical battle, as one commenter noted.
  
  ultimately...patrick stewart is great, though i always have the same dilemma when watching trek--we're essentially softening military figures; it really is technically no different than a movie about a general in afghanistan feeling pangs of family longing and then proceeding to carry out his duty to the letter occupying and razing a foreign country and destroying other families. but that's an essay for another day...cheers. :)
• From Trekkie From Way Back on 2016-07-09 at 3:09am:
  A 10?!!
  
  I agree with Mr. Plinkett, who starts his review: "'Star Trek Generations' is the stupidest Star Trek movie ever made." Check out this in-depth and entertaining 3-part review on youtube.
  
  Sorry Mr. K, you have lost all credibility with me. I've disagreed with some of your reviews before, but this goes beyond belief...
• From Graham Bessellieu on 2019-07-28 at 5:19am:
  Again, agreed with Kethinov here; this is a special piece of Trek history.
  
  The convergence of the two generations is weaved together in a thoughtful manner. In fact, the film’s overarching theme is a reflection on the passage of time.
  
  From a cinematic standpoint, there are quite a few painterly scenes in this film. For example, Picard’s interactions with Riker and Troi during his reflection on family has quite exquisite lighting, which serve to dramatize and humanize Picard in ways rarely seen on the show.
  
  The 18th century sea-faring opening for the TNG cast is memorable and fun.
  
  We get to witness significant character development for Data, with the emotion chip.
  
  And I have to admit, seeing Picard truly happy with family at Christmas (in the Nexus dream) brought a tear to the eye.
  
  The second half of the film does drag a bit, pacing wise occasionally. Then there’s addressing Kirk’s death.
  
  Picard and Kirk working together is excellent and I have no qualm, in principle, with Kirk signing off in this film. It’s just the presentation. There could have been a much more elaborate, exciting and dynamic way to have written that teamwork. Think of all the ways they could have worked together, each playing to their particular strengths and styles of command. Given the entire arc of Kirk’s character, in context, it feels lackluster.
  
  Kirk should have gone out with a bang, with a combination of wit, brash courage, and compassionate self-sacrifice. That’s his character. Instead we get something kind of accidental, with courage no doubt, but awkward and abrupt.
  
  That aside, this film is essential TNG, with major character development and some surprising moments of genuine warmth and heart.
• From gary on 2023-12-24 at 2:34pm:
  William Shatner tried to insert a funny line into the scene where he is dying and Picard comes over to him. In the scene, Kirk is trapped under a bridge. So Shatner wanted Kirk's last words to be "bridge on the captain" as a clever reversal of his usual "captain on the bridge". Stewart also liked the idea so the audience would see they had a sense of humor. But the producers wouldn't let them keep it in the movie.
  
  My biggest problem with this film is that there's no rational reason why Picard would bring only Kirk back to help him defeat Soren. If he's in the Nexus, there are millions of other options. But, it was a nice send-off for the Kirk character. And that really was the point of this one: a "passing of the baton" from TOS to TNG. So in that sense, it was brilliant.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Johnny Storm on 2006-05-07 at 11:59am:
  I have to admit that I am mainly a TOS and TNG fan but I would go so far as to say that this is IMHO my candidate for pretty much the best episode of any Trek, ever.
  
  It beautifully portrays a father's love for his son. It is the only ep of Trek that has ever brought tears to my eyes (and my wife's). It is successful on a number of different levels: the plot, the superb acting, the view of how the DS9 charcters will turn out in future (very like "All good things...").
  
  Having said that it does not stand up so well to repeated viewings and the view of the future was superceeded by later events.
  
  Still a great one though.
  
  
• From RichD on 2006-06-02 at 9:16pm:
  I just saw this episode recently. I had not seen it in many years. I'd forgotten how incredibly moving and touching it is. I am a full grown man. I do not cry often watching a tv show or a movie. Maybe ET when I was a boy. This episode gets me every time. Perhaps it reminds me a lot of my relationship with my father. The thing that struck me with this most recent viewing, was Cirroc Lofton's acting. It's like a .150 hitter coming up with the game winning hit in the World Series. Superb. Where did that come from? If he'd only been half as good, the episode would have suffered. This is an episode you can watch and show to someone who doesn't even follow the Star Trek. It's that good.
• From Pete Miller on 2006-06-25 at 2:06am:
  You know, as I was watching this I thought "I can't wait to see how low a rating eric gave this reset button episode". When I came to find out that you gave it a TEN my mind was blown. I am sorry, I usually agree with all your ratings but I found this episode to be filler, doubtlessly the producers recovering from the expensive "Way of the Warrior". I couldn't focus on the episode because the whole time I knew that this couldn't possibly be. I knew that DS9 didn't just end with an old man jake kicking the bucket and the Klingons owning deep space nine. Now if I went back and watched it again, maybe I'd enjoy it more. I did like seeing Nog as a CAPTAIN.
  
  Bottom line, I disliked it. I thought it wasn't nearly as profound as it was trying to be, and I think that TNG "The Inner Light" is a much better executed version of a similar premise. I recognize that I am in the minority, so I won't mess up the fan votes by submitting mine. I, however, would give this one a 3. I didn't care for it at all.
• From Alex von Treifeldt on 2008-07-07 at 8:25am:
  An absolute cracker! I only saw it 7 July 2008. Your last sentence sums it up perfectly! The series really came alive for me today! I just didn't know what hit me...
• From djb on 2009-11-08 at 6:48am:
  The concept of a "reset button" episode is not, in itself, bad. Some of the best TNG episodes had that going, to some degree (The Inner Light, Tapestry, Yesterday's Enterprise, and All Good Things come to mind). It's all in the execution. This episode executed the reset button quite well. In fact, you could even say that aspect strengthens this episode, in a way.
  
  For one, it's obvious from the very start. As soon as we find out that the old man is Jake, it's clear that this is not a typical episode. Then when he refers to his father's death, since we know Sisko doesn't die, it has to be some kind of alternate-reality-type episode.
  
  One way it which this aspect is a strength is the way it implies how things would have turned out if Sisko weren't around; in other words, Sisko is instrumental in the events that happen over the next 4 seasons. This is clear, but the episode highlights that. Plus, as someone else pointed out, Sisko is left with the memory.
  
  I always appreciate these small excursions from the normal sci-fi Trek. It reminds us that this show (series of shows) is about the human journey as well.
• From L on 2013-05-28 at 8:29am:
  Jake and Sisko's relationship has always been portrayed so wonderfully, an openly affectionate father-son dynamic is rarely seen in popular culture or sadly even real-life. This was beautiful and moving.
  My only concern - does losing his father and his consequent bumming around make Jake a great writer, or will he still be one with the timeline 'fixed'?
• From meinerHeld on 2013-06-03 at 2:57am:
  Too bad that the poignant exchanges between Jake and Melanie are rendered meaningless. Nonetheless, just the chance to see a sagely Jake in an exquisitely homey setting, dispensing wisdom unto the youngun, was beautiful.
• From Dstyle on 2013-10-24 at 7:44pm:
  You know how sports teams sometimes wear retro throwback jerseys in certain games? It must have been throwback uniform day on Commander Nog's ship, because there's no way that TNG era uniform was still in use!
• From Zorak on 2016-05-17 at 8:53pm:
  As good as the acting was by the regular cast all around, I think it was Tony Todd who really made this episode what it was.
• From Coihue on 2018-10-02 at 4:37pm:
  Made me cry. Every-time-they-get-together.
  This was even better than The Inner Light.
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Jim on 2006-10-31 at 2:26am:
  I don't wish to too overtly directly attempt to criticize your review or review this episode myself because I do not believe I am impartial (for personal reasons).
  
  However, it must be stated that the view of, say, (various states within) The United States, having engaged in "hypocrisy" by engaging in the death penalty for murders while at the same time actively attempting to prevent suicide attempts is highly subjective at best.
  
  The episode may very well be impressively plotted, however it is plotted in a manner designed to make the suicide arguments palatable and comforting and the those opposed to it dark and cold. You don't see the real actual arguments but fantasy arguments that the writer wants to pretend is a reality. It is clear from the beginning (as it usually is on television, unfortunately) what "moral direction" the episode is going.
  
  Sadly, this is almost always the case when Star Trek is a "message show." But wouldn't have been braver to go against this mold? To have the characters struggle on the ethics of an issue? To actually make you ask where the show was going?
  
  I, again, have to admit I am not impartial here. After watching this episode I did not watch Voyager regularly again. But you wonder how many viewers television loses with these "gems?"
• From David from California on 2007-08-13 at 5:32pm:
  Saw this for the first time the other day and it was terrific, IMO.
  
  "Jim" who commented previously is correct that the plotting contained "fantasy" elements that slanted the moral issue of suicide, but in the *opposite* way he seems to think, IMO.
  
  If anything, the episode invented a fantasy element which served to give the anti-suicide side of the issue *more* plausibility than in the "real world" of human beings, in that there was the matter of the unprecedented suicide of Quinn possibly causing harm to the entire Q Continuum as a collective entity.
  
  But human beings are not a gestalt entity like the Q, and the suicide of one individual can only potentially effect those other individuals he or she knows *personally*, not the "collective" of all humans together. And such obligations as he or she might have set up in relation to those others is a private matter between them, not a concern of "society" as a whole, as they will not suffer any ill-effects.
  
  So in this way, the writers were granting a point in *favor* of preventing the suicide which doesn't really exist in the "real world" of human beings presently.
  
  Therefore, I'm surprised at reader Jim's reaction in this regard. The philosophic issue raised in the episode of the rights of the individual to determine the course of his or her own life, as against whatever fears or desires of the collective, made for very effective drama as it does in the many other Star Trek episodes that raise this general issue in various ways.
• From rpeh on 2010-08-19 at 1:55pm:
  I enjoyed this episode, but I thought they missed a trick. They should have shown the new Q settling in to his new life a little but then killing himself anyway. Killing him off as soon as they did slightly lowered the emotional impact. Still a great outing though, and good to see Q and Riker.
• From Harrison on 2013-02-17 at 3:23am:
  One of the best-written Trek episodes, one worthy of singular note and a proper literary review.
  
  It ranks right up there with TNG "The Inner Light".
  
  It feels a little dated now. After all, the backdrop is the shallow prosperity & banality of the Clinton period, when oil was still $25 a barrel, and the right Nasdaq bet could yield a college student a brand new Mercedes Benz. Oh how monotonous & spiritually empty, all that easy wealth.
  
  No matter -- it is a wonderful, unforgettable vignette.
• From Hugo on 2013-08-18 at 7:05pm:
  Oh, how I hated this one. Just to much, and it is yet another episode in a string which brings in alpha quadrant elements - instead of focusing on the exoticness of the delta quadrant.
  
  And I hated the new Q, his manners and that extremely bad overacting. The show took on a totally new feeling when John de Lancie enterered - his presence blew everyone else away.
  
  The hearing/courtroom setting feels a bit tired too.
  
  I dont mind the moral aspects though, but it was obvious how Janeway would rule from a 100 miles away, esp when old Q offered to take them home...
• From thaibites on 2013-11-15 at 5:37am:
  I loved this episode! It was great to get a glimpse of what life is like in the Q continuum. Plus, it ends on a downer with Q actually killing himself, which was a nice break from happy-happy. Janeway didn't get what she wanted - YES!
• From Erik Friend on 2016-02-21 at 5:03am:
  Alienized names for ordinary stuff in this episode:
  
  "Gorokian" Midwife Toad
  "Kylerian" Goats Milk
  "Nogatch" Hemlock

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Dio on 2009-02-04 at 8:36pm:
  I totally agree with you on this one, very well written and acted and overall extremely enjoyable. I had to laugh when O'Brien almost fell onto Kira in their final scene!
• From Tallifer on 2011-04-11 at 10:52pm:
  Best episode of Deep Space 9?!?
  
  It is funny and passes the time well, but ti is hardly a masterpiece of science fiction or space opera.
  
  It is a parody of the classic tale of Cyrano de Bergerac, except that Worf-Cyrano is consoled for his loss of Grilka-Roxane by Jadzia Dax. Quark as romantic hero is too much of a stretch (although there have been other such episodes, such as the tedious one about the Cardassian scientist).
• From Mike Furlong on 2016-04-10 at 4:51pm:
  Fun Fact: The actor who plays Garak, Andrew Robinson, was the director of this episode.
• From Axel on 2018-07-04 at 10:56am:
  TUMEK: "Have you ever pursued a Klingon woman?"
  
  WORF: "No"
  
  You mean, aside from K'ehleyr who birthed your child and with whom you went through the mating rituals in TNG? Technically she was half Human and didn't exactly embrace Klingon ways. But it seems odd that Worf doesn't even think it's worth mentioning, especially since Alexander makes several appearances on DS9.
  
  Anyway, I think this episode gets at one of the best things about DS9. Instead of a ship always going out and exploring, sometimes different species from around the galaxy make their way to DS9 and interact with each other. In this case it's done humorously, with inter-species relationships. And it works.
• From JB on 2020-08-28 at 8:26am:
  I love this episode. Worf as an incredulous Cyrano de Bergerac makes for great fun in perhaps the most humorous Trek outing ever produced.
  
  The main story threads with the different characters and their personalities all click together very nicely, but the real cherries on top of this episode are the little extra scenes where the other characters (Keiko, Odo, and Bashir in particular) get involved and give their own humorous takes on the madness they are observing.
  
  10/10, one of my personal favorite hours of Trek.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Sean on 2010-06-07 at 8:45am:
  That was such a fun episode, the producers did such an excellent job on recreating the Enterprise and merging the TOS footage. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much during Star Trek!
  
  And as a side note, I think that mystery sixth Enterprise must be the 1701-E, because Geordi says in First Contact that the Enterprise has been out of spacedock "for almost a year", so presumably when this episode was set, the Enterprise-E was out there, stutting her stuff.
• From rpeh on 2010-08-01 at 5:00pm:
  Wonderful stuff. A perfect tribute to TOS and a great episode in its own right.
  
  One minor problem: Bashir says to O'Brien "Surely you took elementary temporal mechanics at the academy" but we know that O'Brien didn't graduate because he was worried about having to call Nog "sir".
• From packman_jon on 2012-05-15 at 5:48am:
  So much fun. Even if Dax's line about McCoy brings a visual of college-age McCoy "getting to know" Emony...! Still, it's too hard not love this episode!
• From Drac on 2013-02-17 at 8:52pm:
  Very good episode, but as a second watch i found it too easy they captured the klingon effortlessly and silently out of the blue and he told them what he did. Chop chop, time to cut this short :)
  
• From Selador on 2013-06-10 at 7:13pm:
  A classic episode. It had a wonderful feel and was perfectly pulled off. Just superb!
• From AW on 2015-12-22 at 12:40am:
  Just one problem (though the writers couldn't have known at the time) they say that it was the first enterprise when we know that is not true. I guess I was the first Federation enterprise as the Federation hadn't been formed yet when the first was made.
• From Thavash on 2018-12-24 at 7:33am:
  Watching in 2018, I'm still amazed at how seamless they made everything look.
• From Mitchell O on 2023-12-15 at 12:04pm:
  “ All very entertaining and probably the biggest fanboy episode ever made.”
  
  Until Lower Decks came along!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Neil on 2006-05-23 at 7:42pm:
  Hi, great site. I am loving the reviews and may submit some when time allows.
  
  I would like to make one point though, you say that Lt Hawk dies in First Contact but appears in future films. This is not true, Neil McDonough's character does not reappear after his death, in any of the remaining 2 star trek films.
  
  Thanks
• From EKH on 2007-05-14 at 7:32pm:
  If this movie was a place, its name would be "Perfection, Arizona". "Perfection", because IMHO this is the best SF movie ever - though it ties with Aliens for that position - and "Arizona" because it is out-of-the-way, and far too frequently overlooked as a great film in its own right. It has got all the elements: The humour, the wonder, the plot, the atmosphere, the scares, the darkness and lightness, and all those wonderful little character moments. And the Defiant!
  And then it weaves everything together in just the right manner. While I agree the space battle might have been longer, I'm afraid that might break up the pace.
• From JTL on 2008-01-20 at 4:26am:
  This is truly the greatest movie that the Star Trek franchise has put out - but I have one problem with it, and indeed all incidents with the Borg. If the Borg adept so readily to energy weapons, then why not get the computer to replicate machine-guns to mow them down? It seems simple and it obviously works, looking at the Dixon Hill holodeck scene.
• From JRPoole on 2008-11-17 at 8:30pm:
  I just watched this again recently, as I'm hitting all the films during my slow march through the franchises. I agree that it's easily the best film of the bunch (with the possible exception of Star Trek II, just because it's so iconic) but there are some trouble spots that keep it from being a 10 in my book.
  
  Cochrane's character is a little too broadly-drawn for my tastes, and his generic rock n roll jukebox is a little embarrassing. That said, I think it's cool that they revisited first contact with the Vulcans in a way that makes the Vulcans in Enterprise more believable. One huge problem for me is the way that Hawk is assimilated while still inside his suit. This makes the Borg out to be zombies, and doesn't seem to fit with their character.
  
  That said, I love the scene in which Picard and Worf let loose the deflector dish. It's cool to see the ship close up from outside. Lilly is also a great character, and Patrick Stewart has good chemistry with Alfre Woodard.
• From Jonathon on 2009-12-09 at 5:41am:
  I loved this film when it first came out and for a long time it was my favorite trek movie. However for me it does not stand the test of time that well. It lacks the personal emotions of TWOK, the political relevance of TUC, and the humor (I feel) is only really funny to star trek fans. Yes the battle is great, but again it lacks weight and is really just a bunch of ships shooting at one big ship. Cool for me as a star trek fan (I wanted to see a big Borg battle since BOBW as much as anyone else) but now it just feels like eye candy. Compared it to the battles on TWOK and TUC, while they may not look as nice (due to when they were made), I still feel a real sense of danger with each shot fired.
  
  Not to say I dislike FC now, I like the interactions between the Queen and Data (lots of people don’t), I like the grief and personal turmoil of Picard (Whether this is true to his character can be debated), I like that Cochrane was an anti-hero.
  
  There is more good and bad to say but I will leave with this, more than 10 years after 1998 this movie means much less to me than when it came out. It can not be great sci-fi in my books because it fails that crucial test of time.
  
• From Jason on 2009-12-22 at 12:03pm:
  I'd like to echo Jonathon's thinking on this movie. When I saw it on opening night, I was ecstatic with it. But over time, this movie has lost its luster.
  
  In particular, the idea of a "Queen", a central point that you can disable and knock out the whole hive, entirely defeats the whole concept of the Borg. The whole reason that the Borg were scary was that (1) they were so adaptable, and (2) they are perfectly decentralized, precisely so that this kind of single-shot-killing-the-death-star kind of foolishness could never occur. This movie takes one of Star Trek's most innovative, truly frightening enemies and turns them into generic stupid centralized bad guys.
  
  In short, the movie is a fun romp, but doesn't have any bigger purpose, and takes the Star Trek universe a step backward on the whole.
• From MJ on 2011-02-26 at 1:35pm:
  The Borg were one of the most brilliant aliens ever created in science-fiction, and they worked out great for a couple episodes of TNG, specifically "Q Who?" and "Best of Both Worlds". After that, they weren't the same.
  
  For me, this movie was the last straw. A queen? Come on! The Borg’s decentralized structure and hive mind are exactly what make them so interesting. Also, you do not negotiate with the Borg, as they are amoral and only interested in assimilating life forms and their technologies. This completely upset that concept. As for the premise of the movie, it’s riddled with timeline disruptions and contradictions that I won’t get too much into here…suffice to say that the Enterprise crew’s spelling out of the entire future to Cochrane and Lilly makes it very hard for me to believe the timeline still unfolded exactly as it would have if the crew never visited Earth.
  
  Anyway, as with the other TNG films, there is enough here to somewhat redeem the movie despite its glaring failures. The Borg now look scarier and more sophisticated than ever…imagine what a budget like this would’ve enabled the TV show to do with Borg costumes and makeup! We can now see close-up shots of gadgets being installed into body parts, skin being graphed, eyes being drilled into, and all kinds of other frighteningly realistic operations to turn humanoids into cybernetic beings. This added a lot to the film, as it made the Borg seem more real!
  
  The opening battle scene is incredible. Once again, Trek’s efforts to incorporate humor so as to appeal to a wider audience are largely successful here. And I loved the “Big Goodbye” scene, which offered some nice continuity. This movie is worth watching twice (unlike Nemesis and Insurrection) because it has several exciting twists and turns, and three parallel plots that keep your attention.
• From Johnnyribcage on 2012-05-15 at 7:01am:
  Hi all, this is my first comment on this site. I've been a Trekker since I can remember (I'm 31). Grew up on the Kirk Treks, and TNG to a lesser extent. I've never been a big fan of anything other than TOS, the original cast movies, and a couple of the TNG movies including this one. Had some time on my hands recently and I tracked down this site, which led to a little Trek revival in my life (looking back on episodes I've loved, misjudged, and/or missed) I've always enjoyed this movie in particular. I just wanted to say that I agree with the host that this one is really up there with the best of Trek. Also, I noticed that someone earlier posted a gripe about Cochran's generic jukebox. I wanted to set the record straight that there's nothing generic about Roy Orbison OR Ooby Dooby - it's a classic (albeit one of my all time least favorite classic rock songs).
• From TLAS on 2013-01-03 at 8:37am:
  Great movie... But I just have to ask...
  Anyone find it funny how the enterprise is magically able to reverse-engineer time travel from the Borg at the end of the film? If so, shouldn't that mean the federation has the ability to (at least) jump 300 years into the past and future at will now? Kind of seems like something that would have changed everything in the future movies and was just a side wrap-up rather than a coherent concept.
  Oh we'll - still a good movie.
• From Selador on 2013-06-25 at 1:17am:
  This film is riddled with flaws which makes it completely incoherent. It frustrates me how the writers of the 'the best Star Trek film ever done' couldn't even be bothered to think things through properly. Here are some of the most obvious problems in ascending order.
  
  1. How many decks are there on the Enterprise-E? 26 according to Worf, 24 according to Picard.
  
  2. Weapons - when the Borg adapt to the phase-modulation, Picard says they'll need to find a way around it. So the Federation of the 24th century either haven't done that already or Picard reckons his crew can come up with something new during an extremely chaotic situation. Also Picard kills a few Borg in the holosuite using projectile weapons - so why not just use them? If the Borg are capable of 'adapting' to this then they would have done so already - matter is matter, you can't re-modulate that.
  
  3. Even though the Borg have assimilated "thousands of worlds" they all look human. Didn't they ever assimilate shorter/taller/bigger/smaller species?
  
  4. Picard says the Borg won't attack them until they consider them a threat - so they don't consider a big, armed crew of hostiles a threat?
  
  5. The Vulcans are aware of humanity but have decided not to make contact with them because they're "too primitive". Does one man inventing warp drive change this? How?
  
  6. In the end, before Data intentionally misses Zefram's ship with the missiles, he over-rides the computer decryption. Why? Doing so gives him no tactical advantage and only adds a huge unnecessary risk, since if he fails to incapacitate the Borg, they then have control of the ship.
  
  7. Apparently the Vulcans didn't detect the presence of the Enterprise. How could this be? Countless times we've seen Federation captains scanning for other ships in the sector - are we supposed to believe that Vulcans can't do this?
  
  8. Can Vulcans speak English? Surely not... But when they land on earth they can converse with humans. Via the Universal Translator? No, because as we've seen in DS9 it has to be implanted in the brains of those that have it for it to work. There is also an episode of DS9 where the crew comes across a new species - the Universal Translator can't translate their language because it's "not in the database". So what's going on here?
  
  9. Time. This is by far the biggest flaw in the film and completely undermines its whole premise. So the Borg can travel to the past in order to assimilate earth before it has made first contact. Why haven't they already done this? I mean, what's the point of launching an attack with one Cube (one!!! They have a massive empire!) when they could have simply traveled to the past in Borg space THEN traveled to earth? If they're willing to do that at all why not just do it?
  
  I don't understand how these problems weren't flagged up during production, and why Trek fans are willing to put up with such lazy writing. Are we really that easy to please?
• From Kethinov on 2013-06-25 at 4:12pm:
  Selador, some of your critiques are valid, but most are easily rationalized.
  
  #1: Valid. I just checked. Though it was Daniels, not Worf who contradicted Picard.
  
  #2: Not valid. It's well established throughout Star Trek that projectile weapons are considered primitive and passé. For example, in DS9: Field of Fire, the plot goes out of its way to make a point of that. So it seems reasonable that the Federation would not have come up with Picard's idea on its own.
  
  #3: Not valid. It's well established throughout Star Trek that nearly all aliens are humanoid to some degree. Besides, if you look closely at their faces you can see alien detail. I'm pretty sure one of the Borg that fights them on the deflector disk used to be Klingon!
  
  #4: Not valid. Maybe it's bad tactics for the Borg to ignore an armed boarding party walking around near them, but that's how they are, and it's how they were depicted since day one. It's a character flaw, not a plot hole. They're supposed to be an insect colony metaphor, remember?
  
  #5: Not valid. It's well established throughout Star Trek that any species without warp drive is to be left alone to develop on its own. That's what that whole Prime Directive thing is about.
  
  #6: Not valid. Data did that to gain and then abuse the Borg queen's trust. Once the encryption was defeated, she thought she had Data in her pocket and then trusted him too much.
  
  #7: Not valid. The Vulcans were stated to be just passing through the system at the exact time Cochrane made his famous warp flight. The Enterprise arrived a considerable time before that. Once they discovered what historical event was about to happen, the Enterprise took measures to conceal themselves from the Vulcans.
  
  #8: Not valid. The Vulcans had plenty of time to learn English while studying humans from afar. This is confirmed in In Star Trek Enterprise, where it is well established that T'Pol and her Vulcan comrades learned English to work with humans, and T'Pol's ancestors learned English while studying Earth in secret.
  
  #9: Not valid. The Borg are overconfident. That's why they sent only a single cube both times they attacked Earth. As for the time travel, the movie doesn't make it clear why the Borg can't just try again. However, it seems obvious that if they could, they would. It stands to reason that whatever device the Borg used to travel back in time must require a scarce resource or something.
  
  
• From Bernard on 2013-06-25 at 6:10pm:
  This movie polarises my own opinion so goodness knows it must with the Star Trek fanbase as a whole.
  
  On the one hand, you have one of the best sci-fi (dumb) action movies ever made (in my opinion).
  
  On the other hand, you have a plot that is very silly and characters doing silly things in order to make that plot work.
  
  I have to agree with one poster that said this movie does not stand the test of time in terms of my maturity. When I saw this film at the cinema I was 13 and it was one of the best films I'd ever seen, period!
  
  Looking back on it now, as I said above it is a great action movie that ticks a hell of a lot more boxes than most current action movies do, but it lacks common sense and that is a fatal flaw when I watch it as an adult.
  
  I don't actually agree with most of selador's gripes, there are more! It's the way the individuals act. Specifically, Picard, Data and the Queen (who should not have been in this movie or invented at all - she was the beginning of the Borg becoming a joke). The three of them act so stupidly, especially towards the end of the movie, that understanding they're goals and motives is nigh on impossible, thus you lose your grip on the audience.
  
  Why can Picard hear the Borg? Beverly is incompetant after Best of Both Worlds? (I know you'll come up with some explanation for this webmaster - but essentially it's a plot device). Why does Picard go to Engineering at the end, what is his plan? No plan? What is the Queen's goal with Data? Why is she thinking like an individual? What is Data doing? He has a chance to break the plasma tanks midway through the film and doesn't, he says at the end he only considered the Queen's offer for a fraction of a second. The fact that these three characters are acting like they have no clue what they are trying to achieve is simply a plot device to allow the events of the film to play out. How the hell does Picard manage to survive the plasma being blown at the end of the film, supposedly everyone in Engineering was going to be killed by that? Why is Picard suddenly so affected by his Best of Both Worlds experience again? In I, Borg he lets Hugh go instead of getting his revenge and that was only a year or so after, this is years later! Why do the Borg stop on deck 16? Why not continue assimilating the ship whilst building the emmitter? Oh hang on, I know why, to give the good guys chance to come up with a plan and execute it!
  
  Now, despite all this I still love this film. I accept the silliness for what it is. You cannot do time travel without some fudging around the edges. You cannot defeat the Borg without either dumbing them down and powering them down a bit or creating some kind of get out of jail free card.
  
  This is a fantastic action movie, the shots of the big battle at the start still look at good as anything J.J. put in his films and this is nearly 20 years old. The production value used to sex up the Borg was excellent, this was the Borg we always wanted to see on TNG appearance-wise. The back story of Cochrane and the Phoenix was well realised along with First Contact and it all ties in nicely and works well with the action on board the ship. The magnetic boot scene is the absolute highlight in terms of using a different envronment to create a tense action scene. The interaction between Picard and Lily and Picard and Worf is excellent creating great tension between the good guys. Worf's 'if you were any other man' dialogue still makes my neck hairs stand on end.
  
  So these days I think I have to rate this film a 8 or 9. When I first saw it I thought it was an outstanding 10...
• From Kevin on 2013-12-18 at 7:13pm:
  Wow, I hate to be in the minority, but this is by far my least favorite Next Gen movie. It has action, it has a lot of action...and it has action. Beyond that it is a plot with many holes, and is FAR too simple. There is no grand message, no epic story, but merely fighting the borg, that have gone back in time.
  YAWN. Star trek does so much better at stories that aspire to more. Exploration, a statement. It is entertaining somewhat, but also has some boring parts. It feels mostly like an excuse to fight the borg. Is that all it takes to excite star trek fans?
• From Edward on 2014-12-16 at 12:44pm:
  Loved this movie so much I didn't notice this until recently:
  How come none of those highly educated Starfleet officers recognized Lily? She was supposed to fly in the Phoenix with Cochrane. She was Buzz Aldrin, for crying out loud!
• From Armsauce on 2017-06-02 at 9:59pm:
  I'll never understand the praise for the TNG movies. Picard is completely out of character in all of them, First Contact included. Not to mention completely trivializing the borg.
  
  It's another movie filled with too many coincidences and lazy explanations.
• From Thomas on 2018-08-19 at 3:15am:
  Picard: "You may encounter members of the crew who have been assimilated. Don't hesitate to fire on them. Believe me, you'll be doing them a favor."
  
  Picard (on Lynch): "There was no way to save him."
  Lily: "You didn't even try. Where was your evolved sensibility then?"
  
  Picard: "When I was held captive on the Borg ship, my crew risked everything to save me. There is someone still on this ship, and I owe him the same."
  
  This stuff is the only thing about the film that bugged me. True, Picard probably barely knows Ensign Lynch from Adam's housecat, whereas Data did save his life in TNG: BOBW. But don't hesitate to fire on them? Seriously?? What if an assimilated crewman's friends wanted to do for him or her what the main cast did for Picard? It just comes across as badly inconsistent writing. I know they want to spotlight Picard's feelings about the Borg, but I can't imagine him ever telling his crew to unflinchingly kill former crew members that may still be worth saving. Yet, he goes after Data. Do as I say, not as I do? Unlikely for Picard.
  
  That aside, it was definitely the best TNG movie, and one of the best Star Trek movies. I know some people didn't like the Borg queen, but that was done for the big screen. Edward, not sure about your criticism. I'd say saving the future of humanity counts as a pretty epic story.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Remco on 2009-05-17 at 3:51pm:
  So, why is Sisko not court-marshalled? Why are Dax and Sisko joking (yes, joking!) about not getting persmission to destroy Vulcan (uh, I mean, random planet X).
  
  What the hell was this? Should we care about Sisko's actions, if the show doesn't? Whatever... I don't get the point. This episode doesn't exist. 0
• From JRPoole on 2009-06-23 at 6:48pm:
  My review lands squarely between the two previous ones. This is a great episode, partly because it makes us uncomfortable when Sisko becomes the villain. I like that the writers don't pull punches here--Sisko really does become the villain, willing to poison a planet to square things with Eddington. His plan, though, is rash and I can't believe that Star Fleet would be happy with it, especially since it makes an enemy of the Maquis, who up to this point don't consider the Federation their enemy. The fact that everyone is so flippant about his actions takes serious points off for me.
  
  Where is Cassidy Yates? She'd be a natural for this one since she, too, betrayed Sisko for the Maquis.
• From Jaap on 2010-10-01 at 2:41pm:
  Eddington is right and you have to feel sorry for him for being caught. Sisko becomes at least as wrong and perhaps worse than the maquis.
  
  Or did Sisko prevent escalation with the Cardassians with doing to a federation planet what the maquis did to a Cardassian planet?
  
  All in all, i don't feel comfortable after this episode. Eddington is right in that Sisko is betraying his uniform.
• From John on 2011-01-14 at 5:55am:
  This episode is just badass. Sisko kind of flips out and does the wrong thing for the right reason, because his back is against the wall. We will see this taken even further in season 6's "In The Pale Moonlight". Not surprising, really, because both episodes share the same writer (Peter Allan Fields) and director (Victor Lobl), which no doubt accounts for their similar look and feel.
  
  I consider this episode a sort of dress rehearsal for the gripping brilliance of "Moonlight", but it stands quite well on its own.
  
  10/10
• From MJ on 2011-01-21 at 11:12pm:
  Another Maquis episode, which makes it another one of my favorites.
  
  The episode is awesome for reasons already pointed out. But I've read a few reviews of this episode that question why Sisko was able to get away with what he did. I think it's feasible, when you consider there are admirals in Starfleet who want to take the kid gloves off when dealing with the Maquis.
  
  Star Trek is about the history of the Federation, and each series portrays the Federation following the course of a typical civilizational power: there is the rise, the honeymoon stage. This is TOS, when the Federation is clearly the principled, scientifically curious organization Gene Roddenberry intended it to be. This continues into TNG, although by this time the Federation is starting to get into the business of realpolitik, playing shrewd diplomacy with its rivals. By DS9, the Federation is starting to resemble an empire, with a seedy underbelly that accompanies its noble creed.
  
  It's a sign of the times, too. TOS was created at the height of the Cold War, when an allegorical, future America (the Federation) needed to clearly be on the side of good. By the 1990's, with no more Cold War, the more controversial aspects of US policy were being explored, and this is reflected in DS9's Federation.
• From Tallifer on 2011-04-12 at 9:39pm:
  Sisko just violated everything the Federation stands for! He attacked innocent civilians. Neither Kirk, nor Picard nor Janeway would ever have dne this. Eddington proved to be right about Sisko in the end (even though Eddington himself proved to be a monster using biogenic weapons also).
  
  I like fictional villains like Darth Vader and the Master, but I expect them to receive their just desert. I hope Sisko suffers the consequences of his action.
• From John on 2011-09-22 at 9:00pm:
  I just watched this one again, and it's still so damn good.
  
  Sisko is the baddest dude in the Federation!
• From Mario on 2012-04-20 at 7:55pm:
  Wow, what the hell was that?!!
  Sisko really became a villain here and a bully. I don't know if I can ever again route for this guy. During this episode I hoped the Maquis would win and Sisko could have overcome his petty thirst for vengeance and have some character growth. But no, he goes for revenge and the show seems to try to justify that. If the Dominion comes - or someone else - who is a bigger bully, I would not really care if they killed Sisko and his crew (allthough I know that will not happen anyway). I know that the Maquis did also poison planets, but from people who are supposed to be the "heroes" of the show I expect not to behave like the bad guys. But Sisko is even worse than them, because he does it only for himself, whereas the Maquis are fighting for a whole population.
• From Selador on 2013-06-09 at 11:00pm:
  A very interesting episode. I like and agree with MJ's analysis of what's going on with Starfleet, but I'm not clear how the audience is supposed to feel about this.
  
  If we're supposed to side with Sisko against the "terrorists", even though they have a very valid point in my opinion, then I'd be very uncomfortable.
  
  If the idea is to sort of show that good people can do awful things and that Sisko is therefore showing he is weak by attacking the Maquis colony, then that would be more acceptable.
  
  But this is a smart episode and it's clear that a lot of though has gone into it. I think that the writers have left it open for the audience to decide for itself how Sisko and Eddington's actions should be judged - which is exactly what's going on here!
  
  I'm giving it a 9, the only reason it doesn't get a 10 is because of the 'no consequences' ending - usually in Star Trek people pay a price for their decisions.
  
  On a different note, in response to Kethinov - Brooks is an adaquate actor at best and never comes close to Stewart's best performances. He is great for the part though so his lack of talent doesn't really effect my enjoyent of the show at all. I agree with you that he's most believable when he's losing his temper.
• From L on 2013-07-30 at 8:00am:
  Problem - Sisko didn't retrieve his phaser before beaming up to the Defiant at the end of the opening scene.
• From Mandeponium on 2013-08-30 at 7:06pm:
  Lots of opinions here. Keep in mind that according to Sisko, the planet will be uninhabitable to "humans" for 50 years, presumably just like Eddinton's weapon was only harmful to Cardassians.
  
  So he's not wiping out an entire planet. He's forcing an evacuation, one that leads to the capture of Eddington and deals a serious blow to the Maquis who, only hours before, essentially declared war on the Federation.
  
  His actions may not be justified, but considering the circumstances, they are excusable (if only by the narrowest of margins!)
• From bodner on 2014-03-10 at 11:26am:
  It is too bad Sisko never gets his "due" for this, escpecially when you consider that directly after this Cardassia forgets the entire treaty and announces all out war
• From McCoy on 2017-02-14 at 4:11pm:
  10? Really???
  For me it was "How to ruin reputation of main character in one episode". Sorry, Sisko is amoral jerk here, nothing more. The end never justifies the means! Blind obsession is always wrong. As was stated before - no other captain would behave like this. The worst part is - Sisko wasn't forced to do anything bad, he just WANTED to do it. For the uniform... Federation propaganda... Looks like they really aren't the good guys in Galaxy.
• From The Orb of Obampresidency on 2022-10-22 at 9:20am:
  Apart from the missing court martials...why is the Maquis still a thing? You'd think that after Cardassia was conquered by the Klingons, the Feds would sort of renegotiate that dreadful treaty?

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From David from California on 2007-10-04 at 7:46pm:
  Wow! That was *ridiculously* good! I can't believe I missed seeing this one until now. The early change of narrative perspective, the delightful humor in the first half, the performances of all the supporting cast playing the Voth, sets, dialogue, costumes. I found myself wondering how the production team could suddenly raise their game for one episode to this extent. Coming here now and seeing it's highly rated by others confirms I'm not going mad. :)
• From EKH on 2007-11-23 at 7:11am:
  I actually found the life form count to be rather low, as I assumed it included *all* life forms - including the ocntents of the hydroponics bay.
• From Mark McC on 2009-07-03 at 9:38pm:
  This is easily my favourite episode of Voyager to date (watching it for the first time). Nice to see them taking a leaf out of TOS - tackling issues that are topical back here on present-day Earth and presenting them in an original way.
  
  It would have been pretty well perfect if not for a little silliness at the start with the Voth's attempt to track down Voyager. They may be advanced, but being able to translate one word ("VOYAGER" from the uniform) with no knowledge of the language, alphabet or any kind of context to work with is simply impossible.
  
  That, and the fact that the Voyager crew seem to have been giving away technological souvenirs to alien races along the way (handing out tricorders and containers of warp plasma - didn't Neelix find it impossible to get hold of that for his drug-dealing in "Fair Trade"?)
  
  Only minor flaws, and totally forgivable considering the excellence of the rest of the episode. I'd give it a 9.5, but since I can't vote halves on here I'll round it up to a nice fat 10.
• From Thomas on 2009-10-01 at 11:15pm:
  I agree this is one of the best Star Trek episodes ever made. The struggle between honest science and hypocritical religious doctine was never dealt with this well. However, there is quite unnecessary misrepresenting of evolution again - surely not nearly as bad as in "The Threshold". However, the scene with holo-evolution of the Voth implied quite the same evolution=progression-misunderstanding.
  There are no most "higly evolved" lifeforms and certainly the extrapolatation of how the dinosaur evolved wouldn't work this way, not even with extremely advanced computers. You just cannot predict to such detail how a species will evolve, because of random environmental changes.
  Another real mystery is how the Voth culture could evolve on earth to a spaceage technology level without leaving any trace at all.
• From Dennis on 2011-09-14 at 2:44am:
  Unfortunately there was something that bugged me. When the Minister asked Gegen if he could have been mistaken, Gegen should have said yes. Because he said no, he appeared as stubborn, but no where near as heartless, as the Minister and the Doctrine she represented. In spite of all the evidence supporting this notion, that they were in fact Dinosaurs from Earth, it is entirely possible (though completely implausible) that they could have developed native to the Delta Quadrant. Science itself is not about believing in the infallibility of whatever theory you have with enough evidence to make it seem real, it is about challenging the status quo and reaching beyond the world as it is and seeing what it will be tomorrow.
  
  Even so, apart from that minor blemish, I readily enjoyed it. 9/10.
• From distant@origin on 2011-09-18 at 7:52pm:
  Agree with everything above. Great episode.
  
  One thing I would've enjoyed more: the "change in narrative perspective" in the very beginning could've been kept up a bit longer. That was really fascinating and novel to watch.
  
  There is also a minor wrinkle in the plot: at the trial, Chakotay refers to Janeway's and the Doc's research and analysis of the Voth... but he's been more or less kidnapped during that time, and as soon as he got on decent terms with Gegen, Voyager itself ended up kidnapped, its systems locked down and overrun. We neither see Chakotay communicate with Voyager, nor is it even very likely that he could do so off screen... So it's kind of implausible that he'd have access to that information.
  
  But who really cares about a wrinkle in this case? I agree with the general consensus: this episode fries some pretty big fish, and does it well.
  
  
• From Josh on 2011-09-29 at 3:36am:
  One of the best Star Trek episodes of all time. It's incredibly refreshing to see such a solid example of 'hard' sci-fi on Star Trek, let alone on television in general.
  
  Obviously they missed some of the finer scientific points, but its easily forgiven considering the rare form of the episode's subject matter. Arthur C. Clarke would be pleased.
• From Joseph Angeles on 2012-08-09 at 11:23pm:
  Without question one of the most compelling Star Trek episodes, and probably the very best Voyager episode. I only wish the writing team had stuck to such rigorous attention to detail throughout the series.
• From TheAnt on 2013-09-24 at 8:31pm:
  I cant but chime in with most other comments here.
  
  The idea of what the dinosaurs might have become have gotten a treatment in pop science.
  So the story is not entirely original.
  
  Even so it really reminds me of the episodes in TOS and TNG where science fiction writers provided the storyline and resulted in outstanding episodes.
  Distant origins can only compare with those few and in my opinion is one of the best Star Trek episodes ever made.
  
• From thaibites on 2014-05-11 at 4:41am:
  Finally, a good episode! The last 2/3 of season 3 has been poo-poo.
  I loved how the the first part of the show is seen through the eyes of the aliens. It was really refreshing to get away from the Voyager crew and get a different perspective on things.
  This episode affected me deeply because I live in Thailand, which is on the brink of a civil war as I write this. The cause of the problem that is splitting the country is dogma. The royalist side wants to continue lies that have portrayed the king as a god. They have a law called lese majeste where anyone who challenges dogma (the myth that the king is perfect) gets thrown in jail. The royalists only have money and power as long as the myth continues to be believed in by the citizens. It's the same with the Minister in this episode. Her power is built around myth. Take away that myth and she loses everything.
  Awesome!
• From tigertooth on 2016-10-08 at 5:57pm:
  Besides starting from the Voth perspective, after some Voyager perspective in the middle, the trial is Voth-centric with Chakotay offering a well-done but ultimately ineffectual (plotwise) monologue. This episode is Gegen's story, and Voyager is just a supporting player.
  
  If you gave this a "Filler Quotient" it would actually be high, since it has little to do with the Voyager crew. But of course this is not an episode to be skipped.
  
  One quibble I have that I didn't see mentioned: it seems implausible that a species could have warp technology but A) not leave any trace of their existence on Earth and B) not keep records of their history that would survive. Yeah, it's 65 million years, but still - this is *the* most important thing to happen to this species: packing up and leaving their planet of origin. How could that ever be lost to history?
  
  It's a shame Voyager didn't offer Gegen a chance to get away from his sad fate by coming with them. I don't recall him mentioning having a family, and joining Voyager would be vastly more scientifically rewarding.
• From tigertooth on 2017-04-26 at 3:56am:
  D'oh - of course Gegen's daughter was *in* the episode. So yeah, he had family.
• From Rick on 2017-05-02 at 1:02pm:
  I dont see the problem with the way evolution is presented on the holodeck. Janeways asks the computer to display what would be the most highly evolved species from that specific dinosaur. Since Voyager has all environmental data from Earth's history, it has a basis for making a reasonable extrapolation of evolution from that dinosaur. The end result isnt exact, which is a nice nod to the fact that it is just a guess and not meant to be perfect.
• From Mike on 2017-05-28 at 10:58pm:
  I was also expecting that this would end with Gegen joining the Voyager crew, maybe as some form of exile. It would've made sense: the Voth authorities clearly would see life among a mammalian species as being fitting punishment. But that, of course, would've necessitated the addition of yet another character so within the show's constraints it was good enough ending.
  
  I agree, this one begins fantastically well and immediately piques your interest. It's a great piece of science fiction, and the problems to me are excusable as it tells a compelling story and deals with important themes. The most glaring problem is that raised by the reviewer above, that in the ST universe there is no archaeological evidence for a spacefaring race of hadrosaur descendants on Earth. Keep in mind that how the Voth left Earth is up to the imagination. Maybe they joined with another spacefaring species that was visiting Earth. It's a detail, that's all.
  
  What matters is that the truth of their origin is a threat to the species' mythology about itself. I remember studying Darwin in college, and that he clearly did not set out to overturn and eliminate all religion. He merely sought to explain something he observed in the natural world, and could not have foreseen the implications of his theories or how they would be perceived as such a threat by religious authorities. Gegen, in this story, asserts that he isn't trying to upend the Voth worldview entirely, just bring some truths to light that may require some adjustment in the historical record. For a scientist, this isn't a problem because science is constantly challenging itself until left with the truth. But challenging even a small part of a religious belief has historically been seen as dangerously disruptive to the socio-religious order, and that has led to countless wars and persecutions. THat's really what this episode is about.
• From McCoy on 2017-08-11 at 3:46pm:
  It's an enertaining episode, but a 10? Best of Voyager? With all that nonsense included? Please... This episode is based on silly idea of advanced warp capable dinosaurs escaping Earth - it's almost as stupid as newts from "Threshold". Am I suppose to believe, they didn't left any signs of existence and after millions of years further evolution are only a bit more technologically advanced than humans? As was written above - holodeck reconstruction of evolved dinosaur is based on complete lack of understanding what evolution is. We have plenty of evolved dinosaurs aroud us - they're called birds... Next - it's really that strange voth and humans have common parts of DNA? It's Trek! Almost every race can mate with another and have children, so humans, vulcans, klingons, ocampa and so on... - they all must have similar DNA. So even in delta quadrant the voth could find plenty of other "cousins". Sorry, but I just can't take this episode seriously, it's almost a parody.
  PS - Galileo's conflict with Inquisition and pope (who was in fact his former friend and supporter) wasn't such simple and one dimensional as we may think:) I recommend further investigation of this matter, off duty:)
• From Axel on 2018-06-11 at 12:12am:
  Some interesting criticism of this one in the fan comments. I don't share most of it though. I think the overall lessons and themes of this episode are more important than any science-fiction blunders, and if anything, the "blunders" get you thinking about the science rather than forcing you to suspend logic so badly.
  
  First, on the question of how a civilization of evolved, space-faring hadrosaurs could have existed without any trace: I recommend an excellent article in the The Atlantic back in April by Adam Frank. It was more about how long the impact we humans are currently leaving on Earth's geological and atmospheric record will be available, but it posed some questions that made me think of this episode. We assume that we'd be able to detect an ancient civilization, and if it's a few thousand years ago, we could. But that ability becomes a lot murkier if you turn back the clock several million years. An advanced civilization may not be as traceable as we think, especially if it only lasted a few thousand years itself. Just some modern science to inject into a sci-fi premise :) Could something like the Voth have actually existed? Of course it's extremely unlikely. But if nothing else, it raises some interesting questions about the long-term impact a civilization can make on a planet, depending on its technology.
  
  Second, I don't think the Saurian they show in the holodeck, or the Voth themselves, are such an outrageous slap in the face to evolutionary biology because of the existence of modern birds. Homo sapiens and other modern species of ape share common hominid ancestors that no longer exist. And, the more fossils we uncover, the more complete our understanding of the evolutionary process becomes. The only known evidence linking birds and dinosaurs used to be Archaeopteryx; now we have a lot more. It's fun to imagine, I think, that in the distant future, when every continent on Earth has been excavated, how much more we'll know about evolution. That's how I looked at the holodeck extrapolation: just a sci-fi imagination of a real-world future technology. We'll one day be able to fill in a lot of gaps that we currently can't.
  
  All in all, this was badly in need of a sequel. If you accept the webmaster's view that the last couple seasons of Voyager could've been spent back in the Alpha Quadrant, then you would have the makings for that sequel. Of all the discoveries Voyager made along their journey, this would be earth-shattering, and they could've done a great sequel involving Federation efforts to re-establish contact with the Voth. Maybe then, some doctrines change.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Mike on 2017-05-28 at 6:07pm:
  I didn't really like the conversation between Janeway and Chakotay after she proposes the Borg alliance. Chakotay raises some good points and Janeway gives some good rationale for her decision. But she forces Chakotay into a bit of a false dilemma when she claims she is dealing with this alone. Chakotay never said he or the crew will abandon Voyager; they will indeed face the threat together. He owes her support once the decision's made, but he doesn't owe her complete agreement with everything. He's right when he says he's no good to her as just a nodding head.
• From Azalea Jane on 2021-08-17 at 11:58pm:
  I haven't seen much past season 2 of Voyager yet but I'm jumping around to get some backstory for Picard. It's cool to get more exposition about Borg tech and I'm looking forward to Seven's introduction. It's rather chilling how much of the Milky Way has been assimilated by the Borg in the Trek universe.
  
  I'm always salty how they never send specialists with things like armor, helmets, gas masks, and specialized tools into hazardous away missions like this. Nope! Send three of our vital bridge crew with a couple guns and tricorders, that should do it. I know this is endemic in Trek and well-established by TOS and TNG, but this episode made me extra salty, especially juxtaposed with Enterprise, which I'm just getting into, and which actually uses freaking armored environment suits like any sane person would. And leaving Kim by himself? Rookie mistake! If they'd had a data collection specialist trained in hazardous environments and xenotechnology, accompanied by armed and armored security guards, all in environment suits, Harry wouldn't have gotten into trouble! #TrekkieProblems
  
  Janeway imitating captains was funny.
  
  Nice rope lights inside the biomass ship!
  
  Replicator rations while "Catarina" idles away in the holodeck? Urgh.
  
  Some Kind Of Counting: a drinking game!
  1. I might be able to create some sort of medical defense.
  2. Maybe we can develop some type of protective shielding against them.
  3. Some kind of subspace turbulence.
  4. Imitating the captain, huh? Surely that violates some kind of Starfleet protocol.
  5. I'm picking up some sort of bio-readings.
  6. It looks like a warp propulsion system of some kind.
  7. We think it might be a ship of some kind.
  8. The bioship is powering up. Like it's charging some kind of weapon.
  9. Some kind of parallel universe?
  
  SKO count: 9! Do these writers even hear themselves?
  
  Good episode though. Unique plot, lots of suspense, excellent cliffhanger. The scorpion parable is a pretty good analogy here. Looking forward to part 2.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Wes on 2012-04-13 at 5:40pm:
  Agreed. This is the best episode of DS9 thus far. Probably my favorite up to this point, too.
  
  I noticed something after watching this time. Something about this episode seems really similar to Star Wars. It's like they took the best parts of Star Wars and capitalized on them in this episode. (Of course, I'm not saying that's actually what they did. It just has the things I liked about Star Wars.) I think most of that comes from the great space battle. Other feelings of Star Wars come from all the characters who have some role to play. DS9 makes awesome use of a huge (for Star Trek) cast. This is just an awesome episode. The music was good, too.
• From Thavash on 2018-12-25 at 5:59pm:
  Why did Starfleet not send any assistance to the most strategic Station in the Alpha Quadrant , which was being attacked by the strongest enemy they had yet faced ? For me a major inconsistency.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Mike on 2017-05-28 at 9:33pm:
  Chakotay and Janeway both had good rationale for their different views, but they both turn out to be right about something too: that the Borg would make every effort to assimilate the ship and crew. Janeway believed the key was to hold off on handing the Borg the Doctor's modified nanoprobes until the ship could get through Borg space, which was a good call. Chakotay feared that, once the Borg were aboard Voyager, they would try to assimilate the ship and this also turned out to be a correct instinct. I think both Janeway and Chakotay knew that there was no reason for the Borg to honor any promise to them because, without the threat of Species 8472, such promises would be irrelevant.
  
  Part two handled their conflict a little better, I thought. And I agree that the threat of Species 8472 did end rather suddenly. Maybe they did not think themselves capable of being defeated or having vulnerabilities that other life forms could exploit, so when that happened they opted to play it safe and back away. Clearly, they would not be accustomed to losing people in great numbers. But who knows...
  
  Anyway, they were a very cool idea for a species and the concept behind their war with the Borg was very interesting: the Borg find a species they consider the apex of evolution, try to assimilate it, and end up fighting for their very survival. Definitely a great two-parter and, despite the lukewarm entrance of Seven of Nine, one of the better stories of the series.

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• From Hugo on 2012-11-10 at 10:17pm:
  I don't really get it - how did the Dominion ship get there? We saw two jem'hadar fighters chasing our heroes and attacking them - then we saw the ship with the heroes crashing towards the planet in the nebula - but... ? Just before we saw the two enemy fighters breaking off, and no shot was fired against them...
• From L on 2013-08-03 at 9:33am:
  A fantastic exploration of the poignant relationship between the Jem Hadar and their Vorta. The Jem Hadar's blind and doomed loyalty to 'the order of things' was somehow noble, akin to the Samurai ethic.
  Kira's situation as a frustrated civil servant to a bureaucracy she despises was interesting too.
  Lots of moral complexity here.
• From Axel on 2015-07-02 at 4:10pm:
  I like the dual storyline here depicting people wrestling with the morality of what they are doing. At the same time Kira is questioning whether she is a collaborator with evil, Ramata'Klan is being asked to question his own loyalty to the Vorta. Kira ultimately decides that she is playing the very role she fought against during the Cardassian occupation. Meanwhile, Ramata'Klan is well aware of the flaws of the Dominion command structure and the treacherous ways of the Vorta, but has resigned himself to his own role within that system. He chooses obedience-the overarching Jem'Hadar value-over his own freedom and self-determination.
  
  This episode has lots of great scenes and dialogue: Garak and Nog's conversation just before being captured; Jakes interview with Kira and Odo; Ramata'Klan standing up to Keevan and insisting that only he should be able to discipline his men; and of course, Yassim's chilling suicide on the Promenade. Overall, a really well done episode and some fantastic acting by the guest stars who played Remata'Klan, Keevan, and Vedek Yassim.
• From Rick on 2023-11-30 at 3:21am:
  Ummm, couldn’t sisko have just stunned all of them at the end?

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• From AW on 2015-12-29 at 7:07am:
  Props to Morn for plot relevance.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From RichD on 2006-06-20 at 12:18am:
  What a fantastic episode. It incorporated brave, bold ideas that were missing in say, the last 2 Star Trek movies. Dukat's meltdown at the end after witnessing the death of his daughter Ziyal was truly gut wrenching. The battle scenes were epic in nature. DS9 is my favorite among all the Star Trek series. This episode ranks among the top five or Six along with In the Pale Moonlight, A Call to Arms, Rocks and Shoals, The Siege of AR558 and The Visitor.
• From Pete Miller on 2006-07-13 at 5:14am:
  The scenes over the past two episodes where the female shapeshifter is talking to Odo about leaving the pathetic solids behind and joining the great link are really quite disturbing. This reminded me alot of Emperor Palpatine trying to turn Luke Skywalker to the dark side in 'Star Wars: Return of The Jedi'. That shapeshifter lady is so evil, it's unbelievable. She just dismisses all solids as irrelevant and constantly manipulates Odo to turn to the Star Trek dark side. I was waiting for her to start shooting lightning bolts out of her fingers at the end.
  
  For all the female shapeshifter's smugness, condescension, superior attitude, and downright xenophobia, it was quite a pleasure to see the prophets destroy the Dominion's ships like flies. It's nice to know that there are those out there who would consider the shapeshifters limited and pathetic, as the shapeshifters consider the solids. It also reveals that the dominion and the shapeshifters are nothing but petty dictators and conquerors. If they were as superior and detached as they claimed, they would be in a situation similar to the prophets, not messing in the affairs of the solids as they currently do.
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2010-03-09 at 4:55pm:
  This episode marks the end of the fun Dukat, and the beginning of the insane Dukat. I love DS9, but I think this is the single biggest mistake in the DS9 story arc.
• From Zaphod on 2011-05-18 at 11:33am:
  What a letdown, what foolish decision to let the prophets conjure away that Dominion fleet just like that.
  
  Btw, I stopped watching DS9 after that bullshit ending to such a promising and exciting story arc, because I just dont trust the authors of the series anymore, dont want to give them the chance to fool me again. ^^
  And I wont read your site anymore btw, guess, the reviews on this site are more to my taste:
  
  http://www.cynicscorner.org/ds9_6/ds9_6s.html
• From Bernard on 2011-05-25 at 4:50pm:
  And I'm sure our webmaster is truly devastated by that announcement Zaphod.
  
  This is by no means the best television I have ever watched, but it is a super conclusion to the 7 episode story arc. It really is. As usual with DS9 it is what's going on with the characters that is important. Here, Marc Alaimo gets to take centre stage and he doesn't disappoint.
  
  This episode also has a rare commodity in Star Trek... genuine suspense. It builds up and up continuing from where the last episode left off. Will they make it? Will Rom do it? All the pay-offs here are brilliant.
  
  The only thing that brings this episode down slightly is the problem with many major episodes later in the DS9 run - too much pointless space battles. I just don't want to see another CGI sequence, that's not why I watch Star Trek. TNG had that aspect nailed, used just enough to show what was going on. DS9 in episodes like this hits you over the head with shot after shot of ships exploding... I want to see more of what's going on in Sisko's head, Dukat's head.
  
  The conclusion that Zaphod takes such exception to is fine with me. In fact they could have used a similar 'get out' in Voyager by using Q to save their bacon instead of the preposterous watering down and then besting of the Borg in 'Endgame'.
  
  The aspect of the prophets that I dislike as shown here, and I already discussed this in a comment on 'Ascension', is that they become more and more interested in Bajor as the series progresses. Instead of Science Fiction you almost feel like you are watching 'Spiritual-Fiction'. Throughout all other incarnations of Star Trek religious belief was continually held up as ancient superstition by our heroes. Everytime there is a culture or being that holds some beliefs they are shown to be backward or erroneous in some way. This show actually starts to suggest that the spiritual people of Bajor are being watched over by beings that didn't even understand the concept of time in the pilot.
  
  Anyway, none of that takes away from this episode as a dramatic piece. As our webmaster describes it, 'utter brilliance'. I would say ALMOST flawless, but not quite.
• From Christopher Wright on 2011-12-18 at 7:56pm:
  Deus Ex Machina. That's that only problem I have with the conclusion. Too many things worked out in this epsiode. The change of h eart Odo had seemed a bit too quick as well. They should have played up the conflict more with Odo in that respect - almost like a drug addict having to give up his fix for the ones he loves. I LOVED the Weyoun's quick retreat comment and body language. I can see why this episode is highly rated, I just wish the resolution was more creative.
• From JR on 2012-06-12 at 7:04am:
  There are so many good episodes in seasons 5 & 6 and this one is non-stop action. It seems like I find ways to nitpick a bit in each one.
  
  I could not, and still cannot, figure out how a mere Captain, on one of the lead ships no less, is commanding the entire fleet of ships. That would be the responsibility of someone three or four grades higher. They even had an admiral (not sure how high) in the last couple episodes that could easily have been included.
  
  I understand Sisko commanding maybe one attack wing, but giving orders to all of them while making a rapier himself is a bit ridiculous.
  
  I also agree with the above sentiment that having the prophets "disappear" all the dominion ships in the wormhole was pretty cheesy. It would have been cooler if Rom's minefield ended up working after the dominion thought it was clear and ordered their ships through. But, I gather there will be some repercussions to Sisko for asking the prophets to act, and I guess that will make for a good storyline down the road.
• From Captain Keogh on 2013-03-17 at 11:20am:
  I remember the first time I saw this episode, I was only 8, I was amazed at how many ships there were.
  
  I alos loved the ending where Dukat is being led away and O'brein is holding a baseball bat, I just thought there was a bit of humour in that.
• From L on 2013-08-04 at 8:05am:
  I didn't see any O'Brien with a baseball bat.
  
  This was a fitting climax. Hard to see how the rest of the season can compete.
  
  I was as shocked as Dukat was when his daughter was killed. Why did they have to do that? I really liked her. Almost made me cry, especially coming straight after the honest exchange between them of their love for each other.
  
  The Changeling's callousness and superiority is becoming more evident and sinister.
  The head changeling's apparent blandness just increases this evil.
  
  I did not like the Prophet's cliched intervention, and the demanding of a 'price' to do so. I don't see any reason they had to deny Sisko his future happiness, other than the usual psychopathic motivation of those who call themselves gods.
  A very slight anti-climax to a moving story arc.
• From TheAnt on 2013-09-15 at 11:22pm:
  It really is a great episode, tension and quite some excitement how the situation will resolve with such impossible odds.
  A remarkable scene in my book is when Quark stand stunned after killing the two guards.
  
  Odo comes around all of a sudden, sadly it does not feel altogether convincing. Ok Kira have given him a verbal kick in the gonads, yet even so he shrugs off the lure of the changelings from having been all enthralled.
  
  The reason I cannot give the episode a solid 10 is the fact that the Dominion is defeated by a Deux ex machina - that's where the storytelling depart from the style which have made Star Trek great - not even 'Q' did any supernatural rescue from the Borg for example. I shake my head and give a thumbs down on this detail.
  
  Now if we accept that, and watch this as Space opera in the Star Trek universe.
  Then Dukat's madness is rather fitting, and as such t can be viewed as one heck of an episode for entertainment value, with good action and multiple story lines that make it top notch drama.
  
  A small correction, it's actually Weyoun who push for the idea of wiping out Earth's population. Whereas Dukat appear to think it might not be necessary if only the will to resist can be broken by a decisive victory.
• From Axel on 2015-05-10 at 12:13am:
  Sure, this does end with a deux ex machina as other comments have pointed out. It's made a little more bearable by the fact that the wormhole aliens (hate calling them Prophets) do extract a price from Sisko in exchange for intervening purely at his insistence. Without that aspect, it would've been a lot more ridiculous to simply have them make the Jem'Hadar fleet disappear. It would've begged the question as to why Sisko doesn't just go to the wormhole aliens every time he needs help fighting the Dominion.
  
  I would've preferred an ending that involved the minefield too. Far too much time was spent on that plot element for it to simply end as abruptly as it did. But the episode still gets an 8 from me for all its other awesomeness.
  
  It's been suggested that Roddenberry might've included more space battles in TOS if he'd had the budget and technology. This episode shows what that can add: a fantastic visual to go along with the plot. It's also beautifully acted especially by Alaimo.
• From Zorak on 2016-06-21 at 4:48am:
  All other things aside, the ending with Dukat was surprisingly heart wrenching. As much of a villain as he is and as much as he had it coming to him, I couldn't help but feel for the guy. That was brutal.
• From Gaius Gracchus on 2021-11-26 at 7:17pm:
  While Gul Dukat definitely doesn't deserve any statues on Bajor, Marc Alaimo should have one built for his portrayal in this episode. Fantastically played turning point in Dukat's character arc.
• From jobu on 2024-02-26 at 1:49pm:
  On to this episode and arc. All I remembered from my first watch was the deus ex machina which irritated me so much I stopped watching for a while. Even knowing it was coming, I still found it just as ridiculous.
  
  The prophets wiping out the dominion ships is just such a massive missed storytelling opportunity. The DS9 creators loved to mock and boast about flouting Star Trek and Sci-Fi tropes about technobabble and reset buttons. So their conclusion to a 7 episode galactic invasion story is a magic wave of the hand without a scratch on any of the main cast? My mind immediately went to the original V Mini-series where after thought provoking allegorical storytelling a little girl with super powers stops the evil enemy on the brink of destroying humanity with the wave of a hand. This was just as awful to me. There will be a "penance" is not enough.
  
  I could think of more compelling story turns off the top of my head and I'm not a writer. How about the Prophets meeting the Founders? How about Weyoun and Dukat meeting the Prophets ? Weyoun questioning his entire belief system leading to a Dominion dissident movement? Or if you really want to do the epic divine intervention, do a DS9 take on the TOS Organians or TNG Q . Render all weapons useless passing through the wormhole. Make the Federation immune to Dominion weapons and vice versa. Hand wave the Jem'Hadar drug dependence away and see what happens. Create an even graver threat forcing them to cooperate. Anything other than Poof! All the Bad GuysTM are gone. Its far too simplistic like the Vedic who killed herself to "oppose evil."
  
  What really bothers me is the moral implication. This show already has Founders who have no respect for lifeforms other than their own. They literally create two races of disposable beings to do their bidding. Now the Prophets just wiped how many Dominion troops out of existence, tens of thousands? So apparently in DS9, all powerful beings have absolutely zero regard for life. What, its okay because the Dominion were "the enemy"? That's just an awful message. For a show intent on exploring moral ambiguity that's again way too simplistic.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Jeff on 2009-06-05 at 12:20am:
  I remember seeing a big continuity error in this episode way back when it aired. How could they encounter the Krenim in 6-11 months? In Voy: Before and After, Kes' prediction was under the assumption that she would still be with the crew and hadn't flung them so far closer to home. Her boost would have flung them 9.5 years of travel past the Krenim.
• From Kirk 377 on 2010-05-21 at 1:22pm:
  @ Jeff-- Good catch man, I dunno why but that never occurred to me. Is it just me, or do they sometimes seem like they want us to forget all about Kes? I never heard her name much after she left(Not that I expect them to, maybe in this episode I would). But I've still not finished the series.
• From pbench on 2015-09-03 at 7:13am:
  i just can't believe the snafu with the chronoton torpedo thing. even if the entire crew's apparent amnesia about this was a thing, a 5 second scene that showed someone about to say something about it followed by a sudden shudder/wave from one of the 'incursions' would be enough justification to move forward. as it stands it just feels weird.
  
  more examples of voyager dropping the ball amidst otherwise amazing things.
• From McCoy on 2017-08-17 at 6:01pm:
  I agree - there ara major continuity problems here. Even if we assume, that Krenim-amnesia among the crew is caused by Annorax' time changes, we still have a problem. Because there is no way to reach Krenim space without "farewell gift" from Kes. And in "Before and After" such thing didn't happened yet. Answer is simple - it's just careless writing. During third season they didn't plan to kick out Kes, so she was present when Voyager encountered Krenim. But they kicked her evetually, so I really don't understand, why "Year of Hell" was ever written. I imagine something more like this - Paris: "We're entering Krenim space". Janeway: "So what are you waiting for? Change the course now!"
  PS - Don't know if it's just my opinion, but Janeway looks 10 yers older in this haircut. Speaking of which... In "Before and After" she still had prevoius hairs, so it's another continuity problem:D

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From gategod on 2011-07-04 at 4:34am:
  You do relieze that at the very end we see Annorax reset back to where he would have been if the time ship never existed. Yay great, makes sense right? Oh wait he was on the time ship and time passed for nearly 200 YEARS! Time past outside the time ship 260 some odd days when they were looking for Voyager and inside it past 260 some days... THEREFORE if the time ship never existed he would go back in time 200 years. Therefore... he should be dead at the end of the episode and instead they've jumped the culture forward or backward or some strange thing to make him still alive so that we could have the unique ending... Why not just say "200 years ago" as a little title before that scene, otherwise it is pointless and wrong!
  
  I don't know why you think that is a brilliant ending, can't you see the major plot hole. If they have been on the ship for 200 years or however long it was, then if time gets reset 200 years would pass once he was back on his homeworld so by the time voyager is there... he is already DEAD! The scene they showed of him is thus WRONG! ahhh lol anyways i just couldn't get past that and no one seems to mention it ever. Please let me know if you can agree with that?!
• From Kethinov on 2011-07-06 at 11:29pm:
  I always just assumed the scenes with Annorax at the end were set 200 years ago, although I do agree with you that the lack of a caption indicating this leaves it rather annoyingly open to interpretation.
  
  My interpretation is that the temporal incursion within the ship created an alternate timeline in which Annorax failed to achieve his breakthrough to create the weapon ship in the first place, because in this timeline he gave his wife the attention she deserved and began to neglect his work.
  
  Fast forward 200 years, the Krenim's demeanor is all different now because Annorex never invented that weapon and the enemy they were fighting continued to exist.
  
  Overall, I stand by the ending. I thought it was fantastic.
  
• From JR on 2012-06-12 at 5:02am:
  I thought it was pretty good two-parter overall. I really did not like how there was seemingly no recollection by the Voyager crew of Kes' "Before and After" warning about the Krenim and the 1.47 variance.
  
  Up until the very last scene I was expecting that the first meeting with the Krenim would somehow reset. In this last iteration we would witness the crew react quickly to the realization that these aliens were Krenim, and utilize the 1.47 variation that they know about via Kes. That is, I expected the last scene would have been Voyager taking no damage from the chroniton torpedo, disabling or destroying that Krenim warship, and then detouring around Krenim space.
  
  It was set up so carefully and to not utilize it...looking back, it really seems the writers/producers did not want to mention Kes/Jennifer Lien ever again.
  
  
  
  
• From Rick on 2014-01-21 at 8:48pm:
  I think the best way to view the ending is that the temporal incursion erased the temporal core from history. Therefore, Annorax never invented it and because he never invented it he spent more time with his wife. This is similar to what kethinov said above but I reversed the cause and effect because the temporal incursion erased the temporal core, it did not cause him to want to spend more time with his wife. I disagree, however, with what Kethinov wrote in his review about Annorax eventually building the weapon again. Annorax's temporal core has been permanently removed from history.
  
  The temporal incursion only incurred within the temporal core though. If it occurred throughout the ship then none of the people on the ship would exist. Rather, the temporal shockwave hit the rest of the ship and the other ships, which allowed them to exist as if the temporal ship never existed. Took me quite a few years to figure this out and I probably still have a few things wrong, but Im getting damn close to a perfect solution.
• From pbench on 2015-09-03 at 3:26pm:
  was pretty amazing seeing voyager smash into the ship. i knew it was going to happen and it still made me say "daaaaamn" out loud.
  
  however i was frustrated by the way chakotay and tom acted onboard annorax's ship. as i said in my comment on the previous episode, more rich character development/clever writing opportunities dropped for weird uncharacteristic banter.
  
  chakotay, the way he has been portrayed throughout the series, is extremely loyal, or has become extremely loyal to captain janeway, and aboard this ship--with all his training, everything he's been through and seen--he basically immediately falls for annorax's siren song. it just seemed preposterous to me--i mean i get the plot device of him being persuaded and then disappointed but it was just inappropriate, completely. when tom & chakotay first had their little spat in front of annorax i thought for sure we would get a later scene of them conferring and agreeing to do a good cop/bad cop routine, one of them getting in annroax's graces and the other being the fall guy. i thought, what a brilliant way to mess with the viewers' expectations--because i was insantly cognizant of how chakotay, beyond being strategic, was being more sycophantic than usual. instead we get pithy lines about "you don't understand him", etc. are you serious? CHAKOTAY? with his life story, his experience of the world, hell as a supposedly earth-indigenous character (and that's its own can of worms obviously) who should have a very well-oiled and effective bullshit meter is suddenly waxing (shittly) philosophic about how this guy is misunderstood? when his entire mission is to return to the ship?
  
  let's say he does buy some of annorax's story--the point is, chakotay never loses sight of the mission. he would never have sympathised with, and only have taken advantage of annorax's narcissism in a better story, in my opinion. have the morality play, fine, but this is not the way to do it, at all. if anything they could have shown tom & chakotay colluding at different ends of the tactical spectrum. but the idea of chakotay being whisked away by the concept of playing with time...it just seems so patently naive and against his morals and everything he's come to stand for, it felt cheapening for him to get enthusiastic about it like that.
  
  was very disappointed, and felt like it left a taint on the whole episode, which i still enjoyed immensely but had me shaking my head and confirming yet again what i have come to believe about voyager: it has a lot of strong actors and some good writing, but just freely gives away their potential seemingly at random, which is why it can never be my favorite star trek.
  
  oh yeah and the kes thing. *face palm*

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2006-07-15 at 3:16am:
  Yelgrun has a barely tolerable lisp that annoys the hell out of me. It sounds like he's wearing a retainer.
• From onlinebroker on 2009-11-15 at 5:53am:
  The scene where Nogg checks his grandmas blood is just hilarious. Loved the whole episode, and I agree, great performance by Iggy Pop!
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2010-02-18 at 9:40pm:
  The laughing between Quark and Nog at the end of the episode seems to be an ad-lib. Out of character, but I always laugh with them when I see it.
  
  I'd probably give it an 8. There's one part that I dislike. It's when Nog, Quark, and Rom first come out to greet Yelgrun. The three stare at each other with these bad-ass looks on their faces. Maybe it was a parody of some old movie, but I thought it was a stupid moment.
• From rpeh on 2010-08-03 at 7:20am:
  It's a great episode that manages to mix fun and suspense well. The references to westerns make it even better.
  
  @Orion Pimpdaddy, Gene Roddenberry created star trek as a western in space: "Wagon Train to the Stars" was his description, so homages to the genre are entirely appropriate. It's tough if you don't understand them.
• From Popescu on 2010-09-22 at 2:55am:
  This episode is absolutely fantastic! I've never laughed so much watching a ST episode. Watching those little Ferengi banging their heads to form a commando and confront the Dominion was simply amazing.
  
  "Two slips of latinum to the first who makes it to the infirmary" - I couldn't believe my ears hearing that :)
  
  A very nice relief episode during the Dominion war and a very very good reuse of characters! Bravos!
• From MJ on 2011-01-26 at 6:18pm:
  Well, both the Vorta may hate Ferengi, but I love them! Or rather, I love the Ferengi as they are portrayed in DS9, which did the same thing with the Ferengi that TNG did with the Klingons.
  
  DS9 really made itself better and more rounded by expanding on the Ferengi through episodes like this. The Dominion War, the Maquis, Sisko's struggle with his wife's death, Odo's separation from his people, Kira's stories and the horrific history of the Bajoran persecution...all of these are very serious topics that deal with complex issues. How nice to have the comical Ferengi episodes enter the series every now and again!
  
  My two favorite scenes in this episode are the bungled rescue operation in the holo suite, and the prisoner exchange at the end. I couldn't stop laughing...very well done!
  
  
• From attractionmagnetical on 2011-07-11 at 6:59am:
  I have to say, Keevan really made this episode for me. His constant disgust while being dragged around the station, his bored expressions while the Ferengi planned, his over-the-top predictions of doom, his dying words, and of course, the behaviour and expressions of puppet Keevan were all priceless. Christopher Shea (the actor who played Keevan) did a delightful job with puppet Keevan; I haven't laughed that hard in awhile. Plus, Iggy Pop made a delightful appearance, too.
  
  As an old movie buff, I really appreciated the many references to the classic "Magnificent Seven" film, although I suspect that DS9's younger audience may miss a lot of them.
• From Axel on 2015-08-17 at 3:30am:
  DS9 really found a great crop of actors to play the recurring Ferengi characters. This episode is their crowning achievement. The ensemble works well together, each one bringing his own hilarity to the group. The return of cousin Gala, the assassin Leck, and of course Jeffrey Combs as ex-Liquidator Brunt combined with the usual trio made for a spectacularly humorous and adventurous episode. Close runner-up to "Little Green Men" as far as Ferengi episodes go. Not a dull moment in this one, and great continuity with other story arcs as well. One of my favorites.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Vlad on 2006-03-31 at 12:55pm:
  I finally watched this last night. Is the best Star Trek episode ever? I don't know. But it made the list of my favourite episodes. And mine is a short list.
  
  We've always known that Sisko is human. That's not the issue here. What we come to realize, painfully so, is that he is just as flawed as any 20th century human being. Faced with the paradox "Doing something wrong to do something right", he makes a choice that will cost him his self-respect. And perhaps, it cost him our respect as well.
  
  Ira Behr said that Trekkies see the captains as gods. Well, this God just sinned!
• From RichD on 2006-05-02 at 9:56pm:
  In the Pale Moonlight is an astonishing episode. It ranks in my top 5 among any of the 5 series. I remember how tense and riveted I was when I first saw this episode. A stroke of genius retelling this story through Sisko's log entry. The opening scene immediately captures your attention. We all knew one way or another, the Romulans were going to be key players in the war. What we didn't know, is that Sisko would trick them into it?! Would Picard ever do this? I doubt it. He didn't in The Wounded and he wouldn't here. I do believe Kirk would do it.
• From JTL on 2008-08-17 at 8:37pm:
  This is without a doubt one of the best Star Trek episodes ever done. It is an excellent probe into the human system of moralities and epitomizes what this franchise is all about. Yes, "Favor the Bold" and "Sacrifice of Angels" are awesome, but if there is one postmortem episode I think Gene Roddenberry should be shown if it were at all possible it would be this one. Absolutely astounding. The best? I can't say whether it is or not. However it is very, very high on my list of great episodes.
• From Abigail on 2008-12-17 at 7:47pm:
  Although I greatly enjoyed the plot, I thought the confession-in-personal-log style of telling the story was very cliche. I'm not so into the confessions. If I ignore that minor annoyance, though, it really was a terrific episode.
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2009-05-05 at 2:00pm:
  Sisko's treatment of Tolar (holding him up against the wall, threatening to send him back to the Klingons for execution) is not really consistent with his character. I think they should have cut that part out. Although, he seemed to regret it later by saying "Maybe I was under more pressure than I had realized."
  
  Other than that nitpic, this is an episode that never gets old.
• From Jaap on 2010-10-31 at 8:06pm:
  The review says: "Sisko couldn't personally forgive himself for his actions and he felt that maybe recording it all in his log would make him feel better".
  
  I don't say I don't agree but another possibility occured to me. Sisko has grown to be a very "self-aware" person. He's very confident and has grown more confident in the years on DS9. Like he said: HE fell like he just walked through a door and locked it behind him. HE was going to get the Romulans to enter the war; HE was going to convince Vreenak; HE was going to turn the war around; HE was going to defeat the Dominion; HE was going to get the credits with SF Command (and the rest of the quadrant).
  
  But then... he didn't see through the plot, he was outsmarted by Garak; he didn't turn the war around but a Cardassian did.
  
  So i don't think it troubled him all that much that two "innocent" men got killed. Innocent people get killed by the hundreds of thousands at this stage and Sisko has - in some way - been responsible for quite a few deaths himself, just look a the Maquis.
  
  No, I think the thing that pains him most is the damage inflicted to his self esteem. And that's why he got what he wanted but can't be really happy about it.
  
• From Tallifer on 2011-04-21 at 6:18am:
  The point of the Federation is the vision of a utopian future where men have learned to forgo money and concomitant greed, militarism and fascism; where men of all races live in harmony and peace. The moral of Kirk and Picard's inevitable victories of the warlords, maniacs and monsters of outer space was that the Good and the Just will triumph over the Wicked and the Mighty.
  
  If the Federation must resort to Section 31 and murder, forgery and manipulation, then it is just another sinful empire. Parallel to this is the increasing respect for the militaristic and barbaric Klingons and the selfish and honorless Ferengi through the successive generations of Star Trek.
  
  I did enjoy this episode, but these stories should not be told about the Federation: it would have been better to set this Deep Space Nine series in a different polity, perhaps someone neutral like the Tholians. Then the stories could be as free of utopianism as the writers want.
  
  0/10 despite the fun. Simply not Star Trek for me.
• From Gul Darhe'el on 2012-04-04 at 3:01pm:
  During its initial run I didn't get to see much of DS9 beyond early season 4. Also, at the time I was unsure on the direction the series was taking as I found the whole Klingon war story a bit contrived. With that being said, I was stunned at this instant classic years later catching it at random in re-runs. This episode is flawless. Every one (especially the guest stars) turned in spot on performances, the story is completely original, all of the dialogue was interesting and meaningful, I can't say enough. I love the dynamincs and conflict that arise when Sisko employs a small group of professional liars to deceive someone from an ever-skeptical and paranoid race. Simply perfect. I was even more pleasantly surprised upon purchasing the series DVD's that this episode was just one from possibly the best season of Star Trek ever done.
• From DK on 2013-04-23 at 6:18pm:
  Tallifer got it exactly right.  I can understand making this your best episode ever but not best Star Trek.  The artistic vision of this series is most definitely different from the creators of the Star Trek universe.  I happen to like the direction this series took but it is not the "Star Trek" way.  Witness what Roddenberry did when he got a second bite at the apple and created The Next Generation and contrast it with the gritty nature of DS9.  DS9 is a fine vision of the future and a wonderful premise for a show but the differences Tallifer mentions between it and what the vision of the future the creator of Star Trek  had preclude this episode from being the best of what Star Trek has to offer (IMHO).  
  I completely understand the dilemma.  If put on the spot to name my favorite I suppose, like many others, I would choose The Wrath of Kahn.  Ricardo Mantalban was a formidable presence.  Much criticism could be leveled at TWOK too but in the end entertainment is the highest measuring stick but may be different from what Star Trek was all about.
• From BigBoss on 2013-10-08 at 9:39pm:
  To claim that the episode doesn't mesh with Roddenberry's "Trek" is a bit of a misnomer, since Roddenberry's closest vision of Trek was Season 1 of TNG (which is almost universally derided as the worst season).
  
  The issue is that TNG/TOS are well, cartoonish in their morals. You can still tell a great store, but, their stories preclude the possibility of a no-win scenario. Or, to put it even more bluntly, that the only right solution is a morally corrupt one.
  
  This is what makes this episode, and conversly DS9, such a breath of fresh air in the series. Characters have baggage, they have decisions that they wear the repercussions of as scars, instead of everything getting neatly trimmed up at the end of each episode and perhaps not mentioned again. In TNG we never really see anyone make the tough decisions because plot contrivance always foregoes that possibility. The weight of decisions is where DS9 really shines.
• From OmicronThetaDeltaPhi on 2014-06-30 at 1:43am:
  Wow! This is one of those episodes where you leave the TV screen and tell yourself "Now THAT'S what a perfect 10 episode looks like".
  
  It's impressive. It's captivating. It's full of moral dilemmas. Bravo, Deep Space Nine!
  
  As for the claims of this episode being "Un-Roddenberry", I disagree. Sisko simply had no choice, but to do what he did. And he didn't do it to save his ship, or even to save the Federation. He did it to save the entire Alpha Quadrant - including those Romulans he lied to.
  
  And I think that the very fact that Sisko agonized over the whole affair of "presenting a lie as truth", demonstrates how far the morals of humanity have come in the 24th century. A 21st century person wouldn't even blink an eye over this, when the stakes are so high. Yet Sisko feels wretched by what he did. And Why? Because as a Starfleet officer, he values the truth. And this, in my opinion, makes this episode very Roddenberry.
  
• From Phil on 2015-08-22 at 5:03am:
  I don't necessarily see this as being against the spirit of Star Trek if you frame Roddenberry's two series in a slightly different light from what's been presented in the comments so far.
  
  Rather than "Mankind will eventually evolve beyond militarism and pettiness" I believe the takeaway of TOS and TNG should be "if technological progress leads to eradicating scarcity, then mankind can put aside its pettiness, etc."
  
  This leaves room for the Dominion arc--in the first two series you never see the Federation face an existential threat that lasts more than an episode or two. Here you see what would really happen to a society that has its back against the wall, and I believe that both this portrayal and the TNG portrayal are in line with human nature--it's only the context that has changed. Technology and progress can remove the internal causes for base, primitive behavior, but they can't change human nature.
• From Phi on 2015-09-13 at 3:56pm:
  This episode also reminded me of this quotation from Frank Herbert's "God Emperor of Dune":
  
  "I know the evil of my ancestors because I am those people. The balance is delicate in the extreme. I know that few of you who read my words have ever thought about your ancestors this way. It has not occurred to you that your ancestors were survivors and that the survival itself sometimes involved savage decisions, a kind of wanton brutality which civilized humankind works very hard to suppress. What price will you pay for that suppression? Will you accept your own extinction?"
• From tigertooth on 2017-01-06 at 5:10am:
  I gave this a 10 so this didn't hang me up too terribly much, but...
  
  One the Romulan learned the recording was a fake, wouldn't he have transmitted that info to Romulus immediately? Like even before meeting Sisko? If he does that, the whole plan flops.
  
  I think Garak's plan could have been identical if he had just gotten the Romulans to come to the station for any old reason. He can still hide the rod on their ship then blow them up and he gets the same result.
  
  Though, of course, I'd think Romulus would be wondering why the killed Romulans didn't send them a message saying they had come into possession of extremely vital information.
  
  But whatever. I'm not going to let that seriously get in the way of such a great episode.
• From McCoy on 2017-03-02 at 5:49pm:
  While I love DS9, I can't agree it's the best episode ever made. DS9 has without doubt best characters in all Trek (not so boring, soulless mannekins as i.e. TNG or Voy). Even secondary characters, like Weyoun or Garak, are greatly written and performed (why they couldn't write interesting characters in other series is beyond my imagination). However, I'm not a fan of military space opera. I like different kind of s-f - speculations about "what if...", about mystery things in Universe, about human's place in Universe. But not war with aliens. You can make film about war without all that s-f stuff, it's irrelevant. And it's irrelevant here. Maybe it's good episode, mabybe Dominion story arc is good, but... It's not good s-f for me. It lacks that "something". 7/10 is max I can vote for Pale Moonlight, sorry.
• From Axel on 2018-06-17 at 4:10am:
  Interesting takes on this episode. I can't really go along with the notion that this, and DS9 in general, go against Roddenberry's Trek vision, though.
  
  First, TOS and TNG episodes weren't always neatly packaged stories about good triumphing over evil. Kirk faced a comparable moral dilemma to Sisko's-allowing one to die so millions could be saved-in TOS: City on the Edge of Forever. Picard wrestled with numerous Prime Directive violations, showing that Federation values were sometimes at odds with another, perhaps more moral, course of action. And what about when Nechayev scolded him for not sending Hugh back to the Borg and wiping them all out? Moral dilemmas indeed.
  
  Second, as Phil pointed out, the Federation faces an existential threat in the Dominion. Under such circumstances, things are bound to get messy. Nothing like that was ever quite shown in TOS or TNG, although in TNG: BOBW, Picard is co-opted by the Borg.
  
  Third, I don't even agree that this goes against Roddenberry's "vision" of what the future or the Federation were supposed to be. It wasn't a future where all moral problems, ethical dilemmas, and human shortcomings disappeared completely. It was a future where the modern societal problems of poverty, hunger, racism, sexism, corruption, and lack of opportunity had disappeared. Faced with an external threat, though, that future society may make decisions that are still human and survival-driven. And even if the DS9 Federation didn't meet Roddenberry's standards, it's a reminder that the course of human history has a "bunny-hop" rhythm to it: sometimes taking two steps forward, one back.
  
  Anyway, this episode is an amazing story. Sisko and Garak, as it turns out, were using each other. But Garak has no moral qualms about the outcome; Sisko does. This didn't feature a lot of "science-fiction" but it did what Star Trek does best: it gives you multiple points of view and makes you think, all with a gripping plot from beginning to end. Definitely one of the best Trek episodes ever.
• From Thavash on 2019-01-01 at 12:25pm:
  The final scene between Garak and Sisko is a masterpiece
• From Cthulu on 2023-02-06 at 6:06am:
  I didn't see it mentioned in any of the other comments. But there's a line of thinking that Garak used the bio memetic gel as the bomb to blow up Vreenak's shuttle. His claim that it was to be exchanged for the data rod was a ruse, and he simply needed to get material that the Romulans wouldn't be able to detect. That blew my mind when I first heard it, but it makes sense.
  
  Unlike the deal with Tolar, we never learn the identity of the person Garak claims is requesting gel in exchange for the data rod. This mystery person never comes aboard the station, nor does anyone witness the transaction. That could've been to keep the episode within the time limit. But then, why focus so much on this bio memetic gel to the point that we have a separate scene with Bashir arguing over it, and specifically mentioning it can be used to make weaponry?
  
  If true, that would be the one piece of the puzzle that Sisko did not figure out and which Garak got away with. It's also interesting that, when Sisko realizes Garak planted the bomb on Vreenak's shuttle, he never questions how Garak got ahold of a bomb. He probably just assumes Garak used his Obsidian Order skillset to make one.
  
  Of course, this would also mean that Garak had another way of getting ahold of the data rod, or maybe he just traded some of the gel and used the rest for the bomb. That would fit with his claim that the quantity is "open to negotiation".
  
  Anyway, enough of that rabbit hole. It's definitely one of the best episodes in all of Star Trek.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Azduel on 2010-03-31 at 1:45am:
  This episode is definitely exciting and entertaining. It's great because it gives a bit of a break from the intensity of the Dominion war, and also because it develops an "out of uniform" look into the characters. However I hate to nitpick, but there are a few elements to this episode I found annoying. Firstly, why is Bashir so bad? He should be better than any of the Vulcans, as he is genetically engineered for coordination etc. Second, why is Worf so terrible? Worf presumably spends all of his downtime in the holosuite improving his prowess as a warrior. Surely a lifetime of physical training should produce someone who can hit a ball with a bat, he should be able to knock it out of the park every time!
• From rpeh on 2010-08-04 at 3:28pm:
  I'm not a big fan of baseball - it's just rounders played while wearing pyjamas - but this was pretty fun to watch even so, and it's good to see the writers not falling into the trap of having the Niners win.
  
  One lovely touch was Quarks signature on the ball at the end, with a little pair of ears on the Q.
• From MJ on 2011-01-29 at 12:39pm:
  Overall, a great episode. Parts of it were painfully embarrassing to watch, but most of it was hilarious. I think I cracked up after every single one of Odo’s calls (Ball Three! Steeeerrrrrike Two! Yooouuu’re outta here!) Auberjonois did a great job putting so much gusto into it...Odo approaches every task wanting to get all the little details right, and this time it made for some nice comic relief to see him imitate an Earth umpire. And Worf’s “death to the opposition” and “find him and kill him” were classic. Somehow I think rugby would be more to a Klingon’s liking than baseball.
  
  This episode also showed the Federation isn’t really a big happy family. Even species within the Federation sometimes look down on each other, which I think is more realistic than pretending they all get along just fine and dandy. They may share a desire for peace and exploration, but think about it: no matter what country you go to in the world today, people in different regions of that country tend to look down on other regions. Star Trek is just carrying this to the galactic level, and it makes perfect sense.
• From Damien Bradley on 2013-03-02 at 6:48am:
  I almost skipped this episode when it became clear it was going to be a holodeck/holosuite filler episode. But then I came here and skimmed your review, and how could I skip an episode you rated a 10? Anyway, I sure am glad I watched it. It kept me laughing well into the next day. I could almost predict by the time the game was underway that they were going to get creamed, but my hunch was right that somehow Sisko would call it a victory anyway. I love how much Odo got into his role, and you could see he took pride in being impartial, but you could also see the smile on his face when he ejected the Vulcan captain from the game. The exchange in the bar toward the end was priceless.
  
  Worf: "Death to the opposition!"
• From Keith on 2013-08-27 at 12:13am:
  Enjoyed this episode but it falls into a trap many series fall into in that the main characters are the only people who exist. Captain Sisko commands a space station and a star ship he has to have more competent crewmen than Nog for instance. And Quark is not a member of his crew. I understand that the series is about the lead actors but if Sisko wanted to win (which he did before he learned the heart warming lesson of camaraderie) he would have put together a much better team.
• From mandeponium on 2014-01-02 at 8:01pm:
  A baseball episode was inevitable and I'm just glad it was as good as it was. This is the kind of episode that works best late in a series and would not have had the same punch if they had done it in season 2 or 3.
• From Armsauce on 2017-06-30 at 1:22am:
  Why was Solok allowed in the holosuite unannounced?
• From Jason on 2020-11-25 at 6:27am:
  "This episode is one of many which confirms the idea that Starfleet largely segregates their facilities and starships by race. Evidence: all Vulcan crew starship T'Kumbra."
  
  I always figured that, for the most part, the Federation recruits its armies by having individual members recruit them. In the American Civil War, military units were organized by, and came from, member states -- both for the Union and the Confederacy. Hence, the 3rd New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment, or the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Members of a unit were primarily from the state that organized them. Although there was no rule against joining another state's regiment, it was of course easiest to join one's own. The United States Army also had their own Federal regiments, not organized by a single state.
  
  In StarFleet, then, some ships and wings might be organized by individual members, like the Vulcans. Some might be organized by Humans. And yet another set of the top-line ships might be run by the Federation directly.
  
  Particularly in a giant war like the Dominion War, I could see how individual units from member states would be brought into the main force during the conflict. It is not clear, however, whether, for instance, the USS Enterprise NCC1701 was a Federal ship or an Earth/Hew-mahnn ship, nor with Deep Space Nine.
• From ChristopherA on 2021-04-23 at 3:25pm:
  It annoyed me that the episode couldn't quite seem to make up its mind on the nature of the baseball game. The episode clearly seemed to be saying that Sisko was being unreasonable and over competitive when he dropped Rom from the team, as if it were a team building exercise or other casual game where everyone regardless of skill level participates. But in every other way the episode shows it is a fully competitive baseball game play strictly according to the rules, which would include definite rules on the size of the team. And he even mentioned having tryouts. Which would mean that if he had allowed Rom to be on the team, then one of the players who actually made it onto the final team would have to be rejected from the team instead. Which means that what all the other players on the team really wanted was for Sisko to play favoriates and unfairly permit an incompetent player onto the team just because they like him, and reject a more competent player who actually qualified for the position.
  
  This problem could easily have been solved by minor story adjustments, such as by establishing that Sisko replaced Rom by strongarming someone onto the team who didn't even want to play.
  
  Aside from this, though, I did actually enjoy the nature of the rivalry between Sisko and Solok, and how Sisko was able to overcome his demons and find victory in defeat at the end.
  
• From floreign on 2022-09-15 at 7:00am:
  This to me is the absolute nadir of the show. I still have nightmares about how bad it was, many years after having watched it first. I tried it again once, and didn't get any better; I am skipping it every time since. But again, I am not a baseball fan.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From S. Egil on 2009-08-17 at 12:21am:
  This episode cleverly links the idea of Davy Crockett's heroic death with the lament of Cor, who has been denied such a glorious end. Cor's complaints sound remarkably like those found in the old Norse epics. Some modern viewers reject the warrior ethos entirely, but the episode convincingly expresses and even defends it, ending with the traditional and appropriate violence and sentimentality. As Worf says in the prologue, if you belive in the legend (of Crockett), you will believe he died a hero. Worf and the other Klingons would know that a tribe (or nation) that stops believing in its heores is doomed to extinction: an imbedded message in this episode?
• From MJ on 2011-08-04 at 8:57pm:
  I think this is the best episode of Season 7, and one of my favorites in all of DS9. It's got everything you could want in an episode: action, drama, conflict, depth of character and meaningful interactions...and they managed to unfold everything perfectly. You really feel for all the main characters here. Martok, whose hard work and family sacrifices were crushed because he wasn't of noble birth, is consumed with bitterness after hearing Kor's name...at first, of course. Worf, who is trying to do a favor to a revered friend. And of course, Kor, who just wants what every Klingon wants: an honorable death in battle. His quote about savoring the fruit of life was quite a powerful moment. I also loved the character of Darok, the old aid to Martok. He had a couple of funny lines, and his conversation with Kor at the end where he reveals Worf's plan knowing that this will be the opportunity Kor has been looking for was a brilliant way to bring about the end drama. I also like when he offers up blood wine on the bridge, perhaps harkening back to the days when Klingon warriors drank whenever they pleased.
  
  Martok, who is my favorite Klingon character in all of Star Trek, is shown once again why he is a natural leader. He has all the qualities one would want, and most are brought to bear in this episode: a smart plan of attack, fairness in hearing Worf's reasoning and granting his request despite his bitterness toward Kor, and ultimately of course, realizing that seeing Kor a senile old man brings him no real satisfaction, and although he never says it outright, forgives and even honors Kor.
  
  This was DS9 at its best. A well deserved 10.
• From Jim Mumford on 2014-01-26 at 2:20pm:
  - Kor: "Saver the fruit of life, my young friends. It has a sweet taste when it is fresh from the vine. But don't live too long. The taste turns bitter after a time."
  
  Aint dat the truth !
• From Thavash on 2019-01-06 at 7:48pm:
  Fantastic episode. When Kor delivers his “fruit of life” quote it’s one of the best scenes of the season