Someone wrote a bit on tumblr expanding on the final scene here, where Data takes Riker to the brig, leaves for a minute, then returns asking if Riker enjoyed his “practical joke”. Riker laughs and then tells Data to never do it again.
Kind of a guilty pleasure. Not a classic, but I remember when this first aired I just liked seeing the crew continue to be in adventures. It ages badly when you compare it to all the classics, and the modern era of "watch any show any time you want now," but back in the day when you had to either watch it as it aired or tape it yourself, sometimes it was just nice for TNG to be on and for it to be even remotely enjoyable.
"For someone cheesed off about illogical and emotional outsiders she sure seems to struggle with logic and emotions." See! She's right! They've been infected by them.
I am reminded of the lower decks episode where security were doing positive meditation training just in case there is a mental weapon that works on bad feelings.
3:38 Gambit may be a rather meh outing but this moment of Worf and Data is just wonderful. Really makes me lament how a lot of working relationships with a leader and their subordinates in the real world are far from the ideal shown here.
💯 agree. I didn't personally like the episodes, but that scene was well done. And yeah, "perfect world" vs reality; too many bosses and not enough leaders
This was a very fun 2 parter in my view, I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it could have been a tiny bit spicier, but for an undercover story extra spice can distract from the intensity of Picard and Riker trying to pull one under the noses of their captors/ merc crew. I fully disagree on the score but I will get to that; first, the 2 part stretch can't reasonable be put into 1 episode, not if you want the scenes of deception and intrigue to really breathe properly in order to keep the sense of danger of being caught work with so many character's interacting ,more so then say Face of the Enemy which Deanna's side only really had the brief collaborator, and then the Romulan commander, wherein the foe-side here was Riker, Picard, AND a collaborator/backstabber AND the jerk merc captain with the evil neck-plugs installed onto everyone. Also, knowing what kind of scenes can be hurt when trying to be more concise, I bet you the Worf/Data scene would have been either cut out entirely, or edited to be a little rushed and not had that nice impact it did, so no the 2 parter makes sense altogether. While I think Data was the best choice for Captain, and I would never underestimate Dr. Crusher's intellect and talent for command as you put it, Deanna is not so ill equipped here as she had her undercover mission BEFORE this episode which would give her experience paired with her emotional reading to get her a quicker reaction to sneaky moves from Riker and Picard, in fact her advice if not leadership with her experience could help get a bead on what's what a few hairs sharper or quicker then maybe Dr Crusher, but Data does a kajillion calculations in his head FOR breakfast so he's also hard to beat for figuring out clever moves and plots as long as it's not too obtuse at this point in the series. Altogether I enjoyed the intense cat and mouse here and I loved the weapon idea, maybe a little anti-climactic in it's defeat, but Picard has amazing self control so I can reason he can control himself. In fact I was greatly surprised Worf could keep himself in check, BUT that may be just as well seen as an indicator of his character development as he had more control over himself then younger Worf did in the first few seasons, AND a side effect of his talk with Data with was also about self control which subconsciously helped him most likely in quickly changing his thoughts and keeping him alive, though it amuses me to think that a villain with a more emotional core would have called Worf something nasty and gotten a good killshot without too much trouble, especially if they read his more public Federation file notes (Or notes from spy networks) to know just what to say, like calling him a traitor (Public knowledge I think). I wouldn't WANT that to happen, I just find it weirdly fun that while I respect Worf's self-control over the seasons, I know just a tiny bit of study on the crew would have made him a very valid target with a few words, however there's no reason the Vulcan bad b%@! would have known about the involvement of Picard and his crew specifically before she went about her mission. At any rate, save that thought for an alternate dimension right? All things together, while this is not as intense perhaps as "Face of the Enemy", it's not because it's badly written, it's just styled to be a more low key undercover journey to an odd but logically very dangerous weapon (Against most species who don't know the texts and images at least), and so it couldn't have been shoehorned into a single episode and retained itself very well. In my book, 7 out of 10, but close to an 8 if it gave a little more cleverness to the encounter with the nacelles being hit with Data ordering some plasma venting or something to fool our overeager merc captain a little. Anyways, enough of my wall-rant on this, I'm going to focus on photography in the hot @%!ing sun for flowers and enjoy some colony management, good day!
-I've seen too many times where one ship can do a scan to know exactly how damaged another ship is. So, I am skeptical about Data "fakes being damaged", unless he coordinated other damage to happen along side for trickery. Since the whole battle is done on the spot when would he have had time to plan that? So, I say, "Nope, not realistic (even for in-universe standards of logic). -Even though it was clear that Frakes' punch to Stewart was faked, that was still a damn good shot in the nose! Even I, as a viewer, had to go, "Holy shit, Picard!" You better think before you start it by punching Riker in the face, first, then taunting him later. He fucking got you good!" That had to have less bitter and more sweet, for Riker, in the moment. I'm not into fisticuffs, but even I felt the validation of that one emotional action! -I love tongue twisters. When I concentrate I have a fast mind, I so was able to keep up with that whole "friend/pretend friend" speech. That was awesome. The review is fine, but the episode is so-so, that speech really was needed right about that. Thank you for that! -"T'Pol" looks very much as Marina looked as a Romulan, only the lips are different ... I almost thought I was watching that episode when I first saw her (until she spoke). There can be millions of Charles, Michaels, and James, why can't there be multiple Spocks, Quarks, Dukats (Help me, God, if that last one were possible), even if we rarely run into them? So, it is more realistic for her name to be that. On the other side of the coin, the writers forgot to use the reference of Guide of Star Trek Names during the pre-production of Enterprise. Bad writers, bad! -Gallstone ... LMAO! -Oh shit! Koral came out of his ship and my eyes grew with apprehension and fear. Hell, even Worf nearly pissed his pants. In Klingon makeup, Worthy looks scary as shit! Good placement for him as ST character. Hell yeah! That is a envy worthy role to play, for sure! -Riker remembered that shuttles have transporters? Wow, logic prevails TWICE in a Star Trek (two-parter) episode. Cool! -A D&D D8 dice reference. You are such a nerd! LOL! -I don't know I never noticed the flow-charts when the Romulan screens. Maybe because I was an young teen when this season aired. Plus, the episode wasn't exciting enough for me to obsess over, in such a way. -Stewart did an acting faux pas when the artifact was being used on him. I'm sure he had pleasant thoughts. Generally speaking, it is hard to have pleasants thoughts with an impatient, indulgent look on your face because your enemy is being stubborn. I wonder if Picard could have pulled it off to show an expression with a different emotion than the thoughts passing through the brain. Yeah, if Picard can't remember what side he is on, he probably couldn't show one emotion and think another. Good luck with that!
I find it odd that they had such a long two-parter but they never got around to explaining why this thing is dangerous at all. Apparently it can do some sort of unspeakable damage, but all we actually see it do is send very slow-moving mud ghosts at people, one at a time, which can kill them if they are angry enough.
I liked this one, yeah it didn't need to be a two parter but it had enough twists and turns for me to enjoy and I like psychic weapon I thought that was a cool idea
"Picard uses the contents of his head, Kirk uses the contents of his pants and Archer uses the contents of his ass." Sisko uses the contents of his fists......so what does Janeway use?
This one, even when I was a kid, always bothered me since, the rest of the crew apparently expects a payout at the end of all this, but...this captain ISN'T the type to share, and he can unalive them with a press of a button. Sure, he can't run the ship without them, but if he gets to keep all the money from this job that's supposed to pay them all enough to make this worth, AND sell this ship, it's not like he'll need to do a job ever again. You'd think that by now, someone he plans on killing, considering we see almost everyone is armed, would have simply shot him with the actual 'do harm' setting set to full kick butt on their weapons. Not like their weapons are more than point and click either, and he has to see them coming to use his belt thing, as it doesn't appear to have a dead man switch.
This two parter would have made more sense shortly after Wolf 359, just to explain why Riker would not get promoted away to become Captain of his own ship.
When Starfleet had just lost a bunch of experienced captains and was moving to expand the fleet? Yeah, yeah, not even Starfleet can build a ship instantly, but still...
Something that always bothered me. Picard switched the transponder codes to kill Baran... But why did Baran have a "neck-thingy" in the first place. Why would the guy in charge give himself an Achilles' heel?
He got it from the last captain, before he killed that captain and took over. Which begs the question: why didn't he take better precautions to ensure that he didn't get overthrown?
I'd think that you'd want to keep your doctor as a doctor and not commanding the ship. IIRC, in the US Navy at least, medical personnel can even out rank the captain of the ship. Their jobs are keeping people healthy, not commanding the ship.
Gambit never worked for me. Felt like it was written for a different series, and not even a different Star Trek series. It shows how the TNG changed over time. Try to imagine this 2-parter as a Season 1 or 2 episode. It wouldn't be. It couldn't. They had to ease Picard into this action hero role starting in season 3, really. Also "I've mind-melded with Sarek and I know you're really Saavik."
The ending is rather dumb, put the rest of the episode is decent fun. Which is the problem. It pretty much points to the fact that the quality of acting often carried the entire series.
Someone wrote a bit on tumblr expanding on the final scene here, where Data takes Riker to the brig, leaves for a minute, then returns asking if Riker enjoyed his “practical joke”. Riker laughs and then tells Data to never do it again.
5:55 missed opportunity for a Spaceballs "Got that?" clip
Hehe 🙂 yeah
. . .
I didn’t think plot was too complicated, but the bit was pretty funny.
Sir Humphrey Appleby would be proud of that one.
I was expecting the "Yes Get On With It!" scene from Holy Grail myself.
Kind of a guilty pleasure. Not a classic, but I remember when this first aired I just liked seeing the crew continue to be in adventures. It ages badly when you compare it to all the classics, and the modern era of "watch any show any time you want now," but back in the day when you had to either watch it as it aired or tape it yourself, sometimes it was just nice for TNG to be on and for it to be even remotely enjoyable.
"For someone cheesed off about illogical and emotional outsiders she sure seems to struggle with logic and emotions." See! She's right! They've been infected by them.
I’m surprised Chuck left out the bit where T’Paal tried to use the weapon on Worf and Picard looked worried for a second.
I am reminded of the lower decks episode where security were doing positive meditation training just in case there is a mental weapon that works on bad feelings.
@@toddfraser3353 hmmmmmmm suspicious….
@@toddfraser3353 Given _Lower Decks_ and their propensity for call-backs, it could be an intentional reference.
I appreciate how simply you described the complicated situation between ryker and picard, lol
3:38
Gambit may be a rather meh outing but this moment of Worf and Data is just wonderful. Really makes me lament how a lot of working relationships with a leader and their subordinates in the real world are far from the ideal shown here.
💯 agree. I didn't personally like the episodes, but that scene was well done. And yeah, "perfect world" vs reality; too many bosses and not enough leaders
I love how you just don't let go of that two meter thing
I know, right?
Data didn't misunderstand Picard's joke: the fact that he got it and played along is what makes it great!
I never got the impression that Picard's mind meld with Sarek left him with a permanent archive of Sarek's experiences in his head.
As someone who finds the golden age a bit delusional, that health and safety inspection rule reminded me of better times.
After the "Couldn't be simpler" bit, I was honestly expecting the "Everybody got that!?" clip from Spaceballs to appear.
5:04 You see this is because the ancient Federation could not see blue and did not have a word for it.
So where's the Cajun guy throwing exploding playing cards?
This was a very fun 2 parter in my view, I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it could have been a tiny bit spicier, but for an undercover story extra spice can distract from the intensity of Picard and Riker trying to pull one under the noses of their captors/ merc crew.
I fully disagree on the score but I will get to that; first, the 2 part stretch can't reasonable be put into 1 episode, not if you want the scenes of deception and intrigue to really breathe properly in order to keep the sense of danger of being caught work with so many character's interacting ,more so then say Face of the Enemy which Deanna's side only really had the brief collaborator, and then the Romulan commander, wherein the foe-side here was Riker, Picard, AND a collaborator/backstabber AND the jerk merc captain with the evil neck-plugs installed onto everyone.
Also, knowing what kind of scenes can be hurt when trying to be more concise, I bet you the Worf/Data scene would have been either cut out entirely, or edited to be a little rushed and not had that nice impact it did, so no the 2 parter makes sense altogether.
While I think Data was the best choice for Captain, and I would never underestimate Dr. Crusher's intellect and talent for command as you put it, Deanna is not so ill equipped here as she had her undercover mission BEFORE this episode which would give her experience paired with her emotional reading to get her a quicker reaction to sneaky moves from Riker and Picard, in fact her advice if not leadership with her experience could help get a bead on what's what a few hairs sharper or quicker then maybe Dr Crusher, but Data does a kajillion calculations in his head FOR breakfast so he's also hard to beat for figuring out clever moves and plots as long as it's not too obtuse at this point in the series.
Altogether I enjoyed the intense cat and mouse here and I loved the weapon idea, maybe a little anti-climactic in it's defeat, but Picard has amazing self control so I can reason he can control himself. In fact I was greatly surprised Worf could keep himself in check, BUT that may be just as well seen as an indicator of his character development as he had more control over himself then younger Worf did in the first few seasons, AND a side effect of his talk with Data with was also about self control which subconsciously helped him most likely in quickly changing his thoughts and keeping him alive, though it amuses me to think that a villain with a more emotional core would have called Worf something nasty and gotten a good killshot without too much trouble, especially if they read his more public Federation file notes (Or notes from spy networks) to know just what to say, like calling him a traitor (Public knowledge I think).
I wouldn't WANT that to happen, I just find it weirdly fun that while I respect Worf's self-control over the seasons, I know just a tiny bit of study on the crew would have made him a very valid target with a few words, however there's no reason the Vulcan bad b%@! would have known about the involvement of Picard and his crew specifically before she went about her mission.
At any rate, save that thought for an alternate dimension right?
All things together, while this is not as intense perhaps as "Face of the Enemy", it's not because it's badly written, it's just styled to be a more low key undercover journey to an odd but logically very dangerous weapon (Against most species who don't know the texts and images at least), and so it couldn't have been shoehorned into a single episode and retained itself very well.
In my book, 7 out of 10, but close to an 8 if it gave a little more cleverness to the encounter with the nacelles being hit with Data ordering some plasma venting or something to fool our overeager merc captain a little.
Anyways, enough of my wall-rant on this, I'm going to focus on photography in the hot @%!ing sun for flowers and enjoy some colony management, good day!
-I've seen too many times where one ship can do a scan to know exactly how damaged another ship is. So, I am skeptical about Data "fakes being damaged", unless he coordinated other damage to happen along side for trickery. Since the whole battle is done on the spot when would he have had time to plan that? So, I say, "Nope, not realistic (even for in-universe standards of logic).
-Even though it was clear that Frakes' punch to Stewart was faked, that was still a damn good shot in the nose! Even I, as a viewer, had to go, "Holy shit, Picard!" You better think before you start it by punching Riker in the face, first, then taunting him later. He fucking got you good!" That had to have less bitter and more sweet, for Riker, in the moment. I'm not into fisticuffs, but even I felt the validation of that one emotional action!
-I love tongue twisters. When I concentrate I have a fast mind, I so was able to keep up with that whole "friend/pretend friend" speech. That was awesome. The review is fine, but the episode is so-so, that speech really was needed right about that. Thank you for that!
-"T'Pol" looks very much as Marina looked as a Romulan, only the lips are different ... I almost thought I was watching that episode when I first saw her (until she spoke). There can be millions of Charles, Michaels, and James, why can't there be multiple Spocks, Quarks, Dukats (Help me, God, if that last one were possible), even if we rarely run into them? So, it is more realistic for her name to be that. On the other side of the coin, the writers forgot to use the reference of Guide of Star Trek Names during the pre-production of Enterprise. Bad writers, bad!
-Gallstone ... LMAO!
-Oh shit! Koral came out of his ship and my eyes grew with apprehension and fear. Hell, even Worf nearly pissed his pants. In Klingon makeup, Worthy looks scary as shit! Good placement for him as ST character. Hell yeah! That is a envy worthy role to play, for sure!
-Riker remembered that shuttles have transporters? Wow, logic prevails TWICE in a Star Trek (two-parter) episode. Cool!
-A D&D D8 dice reference. You are such a nerd! LOL!
-I don't know I never noticed the flow-charts when the Romulan screens. Maybe because I was an young teen when this season aired. Plus, the episode wasn't exciting enough for me to obsess over, in such a way.
-Stewart did an acting faux pas when the artifact was being used on him. I'm sure he had pleasant thoughts. Generally speaking, it is hard to have pleasants thoughts with an impatient, indulgent look on your face because your enemy is being stubborn. I wonder if Picard could have pulled it off to show an expression with a different emotion than the thoughts passing through the brain. Yeah, if Picard can't remember what side he is on, he probably couldn't show one emotion and think another. Good luck with that!
I find it odd that they had such a long two-parter but they never got around to explaining why this thing is dangerous at all. Apparently it can do some sort of unspeakable damage, but all we actually see it do is send very slow-moving mud ghosts at people, one at a time, which can kill them if they are angry enough.
I liked this one, yeah it didn't need to be a two parter but it had enough twists and turns for me to enjoy and I like psychic weapon I thought that was a cool idea
"Picard uses the contents of his head, Kirk uses the contents of his pants and Archer uses the contents of his ass."
Sisko uses the contents of his fists......so what does Janeway use?
The contents of Shoulder Spider's head.
Her hair, that's why her morals change so often.
"Fear. If not to whomever I'm talking to, then my own crew who are terrified what I'll do if they don't figure a way to wrap this up in 42 minutes."
Her blaster.
Her coffee mug
6:11 he forgot "Sisko uses the contents of his fists"
This one, even when I was a kid, always bothered me since, the rest of the crew apparently expects a payout at the end of all this, but...this captain ISN'T the type to share, and he can unalive them with a press of a button. Sure, he can't run the ship without them, but if he gets to keep all the money from this job that's supposed to pay them all enough to make this worth, AND sell this ship, it's not like he'll need to do a job ever again.
You'd think that by now, someone he plans on killing, considering we see almost everyone is armed, would have simply shot him with the actual 'do harm' setting set to full kick butt on their weapons. Not like their weapons are more than point and click either, and he has to see them coming to use his belt thing, as it doesn't appear to have a dead man switch.
What if they too, are just planning on killing him after the payout?
That's SUCH a dumb weapon, I'm surprised Gene didn't write it himself as a bad aesop with a trigger.
This two parter would have made more sense shortly after Wolf 359, just to explain why Riker would not get promoted away to become Captain of his own ship.
When Starfleet had just lost a bunch of experienced captains and was moving to expand the fleet?
Yeah, yeah, not even Starfleet can build a ship instantly, but still...
Isn’t the actress that played Na’Toth in B5 one of the pirates as well?!
Man, I'm still frustrated how Na'Toth disappeared from the show when I think about it.
Data was simply thinking of color co-ordination. Replace an orange shirt with an orange shirt.
Something that always bothered me. Picard switched the transponder codes to kill Baran...
But why did Baran have a "neck-thingy" in the first place. Why would the guy in charge give himself an Achilles' heel?
He got it from the last captain, before he killed that captain and took over. Which begs the question: why didn't he take better precautions to ensure that he didn't get overthrown?
@@TheZetaKai Like remove it, now that he's in charge.
I'd think that you'd want to keep your doctor as a doctor and not commanding the ship. IIRC, in the US Navy at least, medical personnel can even out rank the captain of the ship. Their jobs are keeping people healthy, not commanding the ship.
I guess the real question should be why they risk the chief medical officer in away missions, i.e. the opening scene in the bar.
Gambit never worked for me. Felt like it was written for a different series, and not even a different Star Trek series. It shows how the TNG changed over time. Try to imagine this 2-parter as a Season 1 or 2 episode. It wouldn't be. It couldn't. They had to ease Picard into this action hero role starting in season 3, really.
Also "I've mind-melded with Sarek and I know you're really Saavik."
The ending is rather dumb, put the rest of the episode is decent fun.
Which is the problem.
It pretty much points to the fact that the quality of acting often carried the entire series.
You just love the web of word vomit don't you? Like 6 people understood that.