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Star Trek: TNG Review - 5x14 Conundrum | Reverse Angle
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- Опубліковано 18 сер 2024
- The crew (including Commander MacDuff) forgets everything about themselves and their mission.
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Sources:
Schkolnick, Barry M. “Conundrum.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, created by Gene Roddenberry, Season 5, Episode 14, Paramount Television, CBS, 1992.
Zito, Joseph, director. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. Paramount Pictures, 1984.
Tormé, Tracy. “Conspiracy.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 25, Paramount Television, CBS, 1988.
Verhoeven, Paul, director. Total Recall. Tri-Star Pictures, 1990.
When I first saw this episode as a kid, I instinctively knew that McDuff was the villain-of-the-week. I mean, his character just suddenly was there, seemingly from out of nowhere.
Yeah, they tried to be clever, but when a new character literally appears out of thin air and begins having major speaking parts... Mmmyyyeeeaaah there's probably something up with them. 😉
I guess that was the good thing about coming in halfway through the episode. You were as lost as the crew.
Whenever Picard reluctantly orders shields up, I can practically hear Worf's inner voice saying "F**king finally!". 🤣
There are some aliens that see raising shields as a threat.
The Ellissians dying was a small price for Riker's unique opportunity to bag Ro.
Because of syndication, I watched most of this show out of order as a kid. So I just assumed McDuff was a short-lived Pulaski-type character, a guy that was introduced in an episode I hadn't seen. That made the plot of this episode more of a surprise than if I watched it in order.
I watched Riker in the insane asylum early on in my viewing life, and that episode was a real horror show if you don't know what's going on.
No jokes about chess grandmaster Troi? Beating DATA?
Yeeeeah, that was when it was pretty obvious that something was seriously wrong.
This was one of my favorite episodes. It’s interesting to see how people interact when you remove all preconceptions, prejudices and past history. Ro Larrin and Commander Riker get along because Riker is no longer holds Ro’s past mistakes against her because he can’t remember it. They also are no longer at odds since neither is aware of their rank at least until they discover their personnel files and Ro no longer has a chip on her shoulder because of all the emotional baggage she’s been carrying because she can’t remember it. Then there’s Lt Worf who as the ultimate example of an Alpha Male naturally takes command.
Worf is an aggressive personality and very comfortable taking charge of things. The only thing that keeps him from overstepping his boundaries is his incredible sense of honor and loyalty to Picard and to the chain of command but when both of those factors are removed from his mind, he just automatically assumes a lead role and starts making decisions for everyone.
It’s anonymously enjoyable, to watch wharf acting as the captain, and insisting that their first priority is to make the ship combat ready. I wish they could’ve continued this fantasy a bit longer. It would be fascinating to see what a commander wharf would do with the USS enterprise. Obviously, it would be terrible for the prime directive and for diplomatic relations, but it would be extremely entertaining, Worf’s shoot first and ask questions later style of leadership set the tone for the entire crew.
Obviously will be problematic for the series to have someone like him calling the shots, but it is entertaining to watch.
There’s a lot one can learn from an episode like this about just how preconceptions and past history’s are the basis for so much discord and conflict and how much better it is for interpersonal relations when all those negative factors are removed. And then there’s the issue of rank, hierarchal structure and the narrow roles most people occupy. It’s very different to change rolls or to be on an equal footing with people who’s rank is superior to yours. Humans need these sorts of boundaries and hierarchal structure to function as a civilization but it does create boundaries that are difficult to get around and is often the reason why some people can never be friends or form significant relationships because their respective roles don’t allow that. It’s a good episode for anyone interested in psychology and how human relationships are greatly effected by all these factors.
Sometimes I wish there was a mechanism where people could start out as blank slates and remove all the preconceptions prejudices past negative history, and all this other garbage that often gets in the way of having good relationships with other human beings.
Troi beating Data at chess and her utter BS line about how its a game of intuition might be the most infuriatingly stupid thing a TNG writer ever commited to paper...
maybe it should have been Troi playing against Kolrami instead of Data in Peak Performance;))
I recall there being a similarly dumb chess scene in the Original Series. Spock and Kirk are playing 3d chess, Kirk makes a move that leads to him winning and Spock comments on Kirk's move being "so illogical he didn't even consider it". This comment makes no sense for obvious reasons.
The entire solution of Booby Trap where they turn off the computer and fly by intuition makes absolutely no sense to a post-1990 audience, probably the stupidest post-Season 2 thing. Well, that or Crusher's family sex ghost.
@@Doomclown I saw the episode when it originally aired and it didn't make much sense then, either. Even at the time it was very obvious where computers were headed. Aeronautic autopilot has been a thing since the early-to-mid 20th century; it was already so familiar by the 1970s that the movie Airplane! had a series of gags based on it.
Also, even if a human is going to manually fly the ship, why Picard? All this bluster about how Riker is this hotshot pilot and we never really see it. Hell, why not some random mid-20s helmsman, who would have better reflexes and better muscle memory due to more recent experience.
@@dycedargselderbrother5353 I wonder if you guys ever "got" the human element of _Star Trek_ ...
"Realistically", 99%+ of all exploration would be done with drones/ships piloted remotely via subspace connection. Virtually everything would be automated and detached. This show isn't meant to be realistic.
"I do not fire on defenseless people. Mr. Worf..."
"Delighted, captain."
not even
sadistic scum like you
RIker's critical boning decision, the biggest conundrum of all.
The clear answer is "both"
He's got a conundrum in his pants!
This was a great episode concept even though they've done the memory thing before. Definitely rewatchable. I was immediately alarmed by that McDuff guy because he had way too many lines too soon to be a typical red shirt. It was hilarious to see Worf assuming he was captain and Data as the bartender (I want that color-changing drink he made for Troi!). Riker was really going with the flow, wasn't he😉
when i first saw this episode as a kid i honestly did not know mcduff wasn't part of the crew all along, so it kind of worked. my score as an adult is dumb but enjoyable ep.
Rip those guys the Enterprise blew up
It's okay we left a note.
Yeeeeeah, like ... why didn't they just raise shields and shrug off the laser pewpews?
I cant believe you didnt comment on that nonsense with the chess game. Data puts Diana's King in check and congratulates her when she moves a completely different piece without removing any other piece. That's not how chess works at all. He could have then taken her King on the next move to win the game. That was so stupid! And to think someone could beat a chess computer like Data with intuition is also ridiculous.
Deanna. But yeah, I agree.
This review is a nice flashback to the first seasons where I usually, like 90% of time, agreed with Robert and was like wtf regarding Nick's ratings (later on it completely switched and I usually agreed with Nick). I mean yes, Nick's arguments at the end are all quite valid and true, but the episode is still very enjoyable and entertaining, I really like rewatching this one, A- all the way!
I agree with Robert on this one, I always loved this episode, and how it works out, and of course, Riker Bagging Ro, who wouldnt of liked that, anyways, was the base they had to blow up the same model as the entity that was watching over the Edo in Justice ?
It was indeed the same model :)
The reuse models all the time. There are ships from the TOS movies in episodes.
Ro was quite sexy, imo
Riker banging Ro, which makes him 3 for 4 with main TNG women. Only Tasha Yar was spared.
Kirk would be proud.
William T Riker is the luckiest person in the galaxy (-class starship).
Wait a minute.... Is the central command 7:33 the same partially visible ship that governed the Edo from Season 1 Episode 8??
It is the same model .
I"m so happy i'm not the only one noticing
I mean, they re-use actors in completely different roles ... so why not also models!?
3:30 Cuz you know if Guinan was in this one, her species wouldn't have been affected by the brain reset light thing that hit everybody, and it would've been a completely different episode.
I'm sure she takes vacations sometimes.
I liked how the mysterious new character on the bridge was named MacDuff - you might say he was the "MacDuffin" of the episode?
Obscure Hitchcock reference. Love it!
you can't take over a star ship without command codes - felt more like the final act of a desperate enemy more than a carefully planned strategy
B+ leaning to A
Jonathan Frakes played David Xanatos on Disney's Gargoyles and Xanatos' wife Fox (Played by Laura San Giacamo) is more of a Ro type than a Troi type. Marina Sirtis was Demona on that same show.
Even when I was a kid when this episode originally aired, I was like, “why didn’t MacDuff just make himself the Captain?” Why allow Picard to potentially overrule you? Why leave that big gaping hole in your evil plan?
What makes you think McDuff knows everything about operating the Enterprise? Even without their memories, the crew know how things worked.
7:55 "He's killing me! He's killing me!"
still better than
CRISPIN'S DANCING
My understanding was that the alien race needed the bridge crew to operate the Enterprise. Their tech was inferior besides the anti-memory beam. They needed an onboard operative and having more than one just increases the likelihood of being found out. This seems pretty reasonable to me. It's not a bad plan from the foundation up.....they didn't execute it well. It could have succeeded... probably better than a strike force that just kills the Federation crew and tries to learn the tech on the spot....while hoping the enemy or the Federation don't come find them while they're trying to figure out what an EPS grid actually is.
Nick needs his own bad guy music when he talks.
A D+ for Conundrum!
Every episode I’ve loved and cherished my whole life and he’s being all Goosebumps girl about it “omgurrd it was so boring and stupid.” He’s the McDuff of these reviews.
I thought of the same thing (MacDuff just making himself captain). However, it is more subtle, and maybe effective, to manipulate the crew in order to influence the leader, rather than to just become the leader and boss everyone around toward his goal and risk mutiny, or something similar.
maybe he would get found out being captain as hes not a captain in reality and wouldnt possess the same qualities and the crew might get suspicious, the role he took was pretty good, however i agree with the idea that they should've just sent a bunch of spys in and not just 1
If I was in Picard’s place, I would immediately turn the ship around because A) it could easily be a trap to destroy the Enterprise, and B) if your memory is gone and the only thing “helpful” on the computer is that particular mission, which is supposedly super important, it could easily be fake.
I liked this episode anyway because it was an interesting concept.
The Naked Now: D
Conundrum: D+
yeah get outta here Nick
This was one of the first (perhaps the very first) TNG episodes I ever saw back when I was an adolescent, so it never occurred to me that McDuff wasn't a regular part of the cast. Made for an interesting viewing experience as well, and more mystery.
The part I never got was how these Satarrans could have such incredibly advanced computer and biology technology (wiping or suppressing memories and databases with equal ease in humans and all other aliens abord, and in Data and in the ship's computer), yet still be behind over a 100 years in weapons technology. And even if that were so, I'd have expected them to simply commandeer the ship with a whole bunch of McDuffs like this video suggests, or buy some weapons technology on the black market. Even if that's 30 years behind the times by the Ent-D standards, it's _still_ 70+ years more advanced than anything the Lysians have.
Good points on the episode from both. Before the reviews, I gave it a B/B-. I liked the episode enough, interesting idea, and the scenes seemed to flow well enough that it didn't feel bogged down.
The McDuff character was the one where I was like yeah, I think it's that guy and then they obviously started hinting at him. They could have done it a little more subtlety, but the cat would have been out of the bag anyway so...
Faulty logic by Nick. He assumes the aliens actually have the ability to replace more than one person at a time. It's likely that "MacDuff" was a prototype agent for them... the only one who could shapeshift, learn the human language and customs, and pull off the con. You should think of MacDuff as their Captain America - a highly trained super-soldier who was the only one that could pull off the mission. This was a highly ambitious plan by them that would have taken a long time to develop. They would have had to have gathered intel on Starfleet procedures, uniforms, and how to get around the Galaxy-class starship in order for MacDuff to blend in and the more agents you add to the mix, the more likely it is that one of them will get caught. Plus, their whole point was to have Starfleet destroy the Lysians and by default get blamed for it, so why would they "kill everyone on board" the Enterprise and leave evidence of their presence there? Obviously they are no match against even one Starfleet ship or they would have just defeated their enemies outright instead of going through all of this effort and risk of impersonating a Starfleet officer.
About the only question you posed that doesn't have an easy answer is why they didn't just make MacDuff captain instead of "executive officer" and the reason for that is simple: we the audience would immediately know there was something off if Picard was no longer captain. We figured it out soon anyway, but inserting MacDuff in the command structure rather than have him be at the top of it kept us off balance for at least one act of the episode. Making him captain has us at "red alert" right from the get-go as an audience. Plot-wise, there's not a reason for it unless, like I mentioned before, the aliens were trying hard not to get blamed for destroying the Lysian complex. Technically, it would be the Federation (via Captain Picard) who would take the blame for killing the Lysians by ordering the attack... not MacDuff's people. I can easily see an alternate ending to this episode where Picard fires, he massacres the Lysians, and then MacDuff disappears and finds a way off the Enterprise a few hours later, leaving the Federation with a major diplomatic incident and blood on their hands with no actual "proof" of collusion by MacDuff's people.
I enjoy all these vids, so keep that in mind when I say this.
This is all, all of it, just filler material until your review of Sub Rosa. A+
The thing about McDuff not being the captain could have been fixed so easily: Let's say the computer doesn't take orders from him, because he isn't in the personnel database. So there could be a subplot of him acting like "oh no, Mr. LaForge, please check the computers, because they don't listen to my commands" and such. Maybe he would have been left out of crew list they eventually found, so he would have to have fabricated a starfleet order in which he is transferred to the Enterprise, implying that there wasn't the time to give him clearance for the computers. As I say, it could have been that easy, but sadly it wasn't done. Still a good episode.
How did Troi beat Data at chess? She said she was playing by "instinct". WTF? Computers *now* can beat the best players in the world. Is Troi the ships Chess champion? Considering Data is zillions of times more powerful than today's computers, and he can compute every single move possible in seconds, there is no way anyone would beat him. Let alone someone who played by "instinct". Unless Troi was playing Data on his "novice" setting.
C+ as although it's a bit daft at times, I enjoyed the episode.
The fact that this character we'd never seen before was, according to the computer, first officer was a strong indicator that he was involved in the memory wipe, so I don't see any dumb about his twirling his moustache to the audience. As for not killing the crew and taking over the ship: (1) the crew would know how to operate the ship better than McDuff would; (2) the crew still had their personalities, such as Worf still being loyal to Picard, which probably applied to the rest of the crew.
They mention how the two warring species are overall technologically inferior to themselves, so my assumption has always been they needed the crew in order to pilot the ship effectively to achieve their goal. To that end, having 20 McDuff’s wouldn’t have helped.
Making him Captain would have still worked though. Could have just ordered everyone about.
Why didn't McDuff just make himself Captain instead of First Officer?
What happened to the holodeck safety protocols? Remember Picard had to disable them in First Contact to let him use a tommy gun on the Borg, which of course, the Borg somehow cannot adapt to.
The one scene (other than the crew having been tricked into an atrocity) that really threw me was when McDuff (seriously, Picard didn't see a red flag if he still knew Shakespeare) pulled Worf aside in a manner reminiscent of an old-time racist setting up a Klan 'event'. But does the ship ever have 'outside infiltrator gaslights everyone' safeguards in place? McDuff here, Naomi's distant cousin in 'The Game', who's next, The Music Meister?
I mean, the green light thing at least wasn't 'that one lightning effect', so, there's that.
1:55 The Paxans could learn something.
I'm with Robert on this!
Jesus, you guys are hilarious! Probably my favorite new channel right now. Speaking of which, your channel is CRIMINALLY undersubscribed. Come on, UA-cam! What does it take to get ahead on this platform nowadays? 😉
Oh, yeah. I know. You have to do at least a Short video a day. Also, your thumbnails are fine, but they need more giant red arrows and eye grabbing text. Then, you need to make your video titles more provocative. You know, like, for this video you could try _Riker has a Conundrum About Which Woman to Sleep With. OR BOTH?!?!_
(Hope you know that's sarcasm. 😉😎🤘☮️)
I want to know why the EDO God ship from season 1 episode 8 is in this episode only this time its not powerful at all when last time it was multidimensional and superior to the Enterprise.
I really liked this episode better than Clues, the character stuff was all more interesting, in particular the Worf and Data stuff. And Picard stuff. Yeah it was a good episode. Any time Worf gets a bit of authority is a good time. Clues was just a mystery for mystery's sake, Conundrum was a much more interesting character drama.
Yeah the ploy might've been implemented better, I assume they couldn't just stick MacDuffs everywhere because it's not like he really knows how to operate the Enterprise, but he should've been captain.
Even with their memories wiped, the crew still felt loyalty and respect for Picard though. So who's more likely to get the best performance from them, McDuff or Picard?
2 normal guys. Just being normal. Thanks for a real laugh and great video.
Riker got it in
I've come to the conclusion that the best episodes are not the ones with best writing or execution, but the ones Nick and Robert completely disagree on the rating. Would have cool to see more captain Work, maybe counselor Data or Picard chief engineer.
This reminds me of watching 'Siskel and Ebert' : )
I also thought mcduff was some random person assigned to bridge. I too wish they wouldn't have found their memories so quickly. Would've loved to see Worf be captain for the episode
Note the Lysiam conmand is also the Edo god.
Thank you! The most blatantly obvious observation that no-one seems to ever notice apart from myself and now you was if the McDuff character had the ability to erase memories and place false information in the computer, why not just place himself as Captain??? 🤷
No eepisode is ever complete without....
T O T A L R E C A L L
tsh tsh tshtshtsh tsh tsh tsh tshtshsth
A minor note, it's interesting that the fake Starfleet had their second officer (Riker) sitting around doing nothing. Seems a waste of personnel.
I would argue, as with Star Trek VI and its mystery, the answer to the mystery isn’t so important as how and why we reach our resolution. You can know MacDuff is who he is and still get a lot, if not more, value out of the episode (the hint is even in the name: “MacDuff is not of woman born”).
Yeah, so many things happened that defied logic in this episode that made suspension of disbelief just not possible. Those aliens really could have just taken the ship instead of this infiltration b.s. The only positive out of this was seeing Captain Liberty herself, a young Liz Vassey.
McDuff was suspicious from the first moment he's on screen because of his uniform.
This episode would work much better If 1 - the episode started with everyone out of memory, and 2 - the enemy was a recurrent character pocessed or a impostor.
Time is relative in space
Fukken lol
This episode's premise is really dumb. This alien race is so advanced that it can scan and penetrate the Enterprise, did all kinds of things to the crew, yet needed the ship to wipe out its enemy that is so technologically inferior? They could have accomplished the task themselves. Smh.
I guess the writers didn't have confidence in themselves and/or the audience to parse their way through a traditional whodunnit/howdunnit story, which is very strange given the focus Sherlock Holmes lore is given at various points in the show. Maybe Ryan's Edits can splice in Pulaski shouting "Fraud!" at various illogical and farcical aspects of this episode.
Why th would Troi and Ro have any issues w both of them having slept w Riker? Since he was under alien influence, as a serial mono person, it makes perfect sense. They just make fun of him having slept w the both of them in a short period of time. They are probably just comparing his sexual skills with each other, like most persons would, and that's what the joke is, not that he slept w several people within, what, a week? No one cares about frequent sexual contacts in Trek because they have moved past that point. If you take away the risk of STDs, like in Trek, irregular sexual contacts is no issues.
Because humans get jealous completely irrational reasons all the time? Now technically Ro isn't human but as we see in DS9 Bajornans are very human in their behavior...
@@Hakar17 Only humans w low self esteem.
Are you guys going to do DS9 AND voyager just wondering
I'm sure we'll bring them up, but for now we are just focusing TNG episodes and movies.
I agreed with Nick on basically every point. Why they decided to have the crew figure out who they were so early on was criminal; that was such a missed opportunity.
I thought it was a pleasant, because it wasn't where I expected the episode to go.
The rank confusion was answered by where was Picard sitting and Warf standing, the command seat and a work station.
If Warf was in command, why would Picard be in the command seat with Warf at the tactical station during, what they believe had been a "battle"? ;-)
This isn’t a bad episode, but it is a stupid one.
Chh
Chh
Chh
Chh Chh
Great
Nick is wrong. Nothing more to say.
out of all the episodes i watched this one is one the least morable of all
B+ ♥
Yep, the crew is completely unnecessary.
I hate this episode. It feels like Ro was used to push Roddenberry's weird fetish themes.
Roddenberry was already dead at this point