In the 24th century, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is commanding the Federation spaceship Enterprise, with the goal of exploring space and seeking out new civilizations, and containing the Borg aliens. He is assisted by Commander William Riker, android Data, Klingon Lt. Worf, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Counsellor Deanna Troi, engineer La Forge, and others. They have to be careful of not to interfere into the development of other, less advanced alien cultures, while they also have to keep up the fragile peace between the Federation and the antagonistic Klingon and Romulan Empires.
The 5th season of the beloved "Star Trek: The Next Generation" continued the strong impression of the previous two seasons by offering several inspired, creative and even philosophical episodes, whereas also giving a neat little role to Michelle Forbes, who is great as the sassy Ensign Ro, a recurring character. However, the pendulum of quality swings back again due to an too episodic nature of the series, since even great episodes seem isolated and without a bigger influence on the routine flow of the rest of the storyline. One gets the impression that "Star Trek" is sometimes a tad naive in certain aspects, not only in the notion that the crew teleports to unknown planets without any protective spacesuits (as if unknown viruses do not exist on alien planets), but also in the concept of a universal translator which is able to immediately establish a translation of a new alien culture. Episode 5.2 is a welcomed requestioning of the latter, since it revolves around Picard and the Enterprise crew trying to understand the Tamarian aliens who only speak in metaphors, which is a problem many episodes simply brush off, though even this "communication problem" was elaborated even more realistically in Villenueve's "Arrival". While Tamarian language has some catchy lines ("His eyes opened!"; "His arms wide!"), it is also questionable how an advanced civilization would function without precise vocabulary. Double episodes 5.7 and 5.8 attracted attention since they featured a guest role by Leonard Nimoy, alias Spock, who wants to unite the two contradictory cultures, the rational-pacifist Vulcans and the aggressive Romulans, yet for such high expectations, his role was underwhelming and he, sadly, never manages to create chemistry with Picard. Ultimately, these two episodes are good, but are just a calculative "clickbait". Ironically, the most memorable sequence in these two episodes is delivered not by Spock, but by Data, who just stands there, staring in the room at night, while Picard is trying to sleep underneath him, but is so uncomfortable by the constantly awake android that Data has to turn around and stand in front of a wall. Episode 5.9 is an interesting contemplation on humanitarian intervention and passivity when faced with a possible massive threat of deaths, with an alleged time traveller refusing to tell if an inhabited planet is going to explode or not. While the twist ending is neat, the story could have been better written.
Episode 5.13 is also interesting, though presented as a rather dry PowerPoint presentation, which somewhat hinders the story from coming fully to life. The concept is a sly commentary on the limitations of isolationism: a human colony cut itself off from the Universe on planet Moab IV to perfect an eugenics society without any flaws, but now a stellar fragment is approaching the planet and threatens to destroy it, forcing the society in a Catch-22: accept outside intervention from the Enterprise and reform or stay true to their dogma and die out? Some good points are raised, such as how a society cannot unilaterally declare themselves as perfect, but can only be objectively judged by a third party, yet the writing should have been more fresh and energetic, instead of this stale. Episode 5.14 seems like an alternative plot direction to "Clues" from 4.14: the Enterprise crew loses their memory after a mysterious incident, while a new crew member orders them to attack (and kill) the alien spaceships, because, allegedly, they are in a war with the Lysians and must act quickly. A powerful and great little episode, it is a clever and revealing commentary on war propaganda, especially how the masses can be mislead to rush into war even though there is no danger at all. When the murder of Lysians approaches the level of persecution, Picard rightfully protests that it is like someone giving him a gun and an order to shoot a perfect stranger in a room. Episode 5.16 is disappointing (Worf is left paralyzed and wants to die), an obvious morality play on euthanasia, which is misguided anyway since there would probably be no disabilities in such a technologically advanced future. The next episode is also bland, as well. A grand compensation arrives in one of the best episodes of the entire series, 5.18, which has a fascinating story of a time loop—a whole year before "Groundhog Day". The Enterprise encounters a fog in space, malfunctions, a spaceship (Commander played by Kelsey Grammer) emerges from the fog and scratches the Enterprise, causing it to explode. But the time repeats itself, everything is reset, and only Dr. Crusher seems to realize there is a deja vu going on. The episode is mysterious, exciting, with a few disorienting camera "shakes" and works down to a T. The sequence where Dr. Crusher is able to predict all the cards Data is going to deal during Poker is great, as is the moment where she goes to sleep in her bed, but hears noises of people in the dark. All the little details contribute to the overall picture: truly, an excellent episode.
The next one, 5.19, is at times a dry court drama, but still surprisingly effective of an allegory on honesty and ethics. 5.21 received a lot of backlash for the concept in which an alien woman has the sole purpose to please—and adapt to the wishes—of her future husband, yet it is overall an interesting thought experiment on the dilemma of how to react to cultures which are completely different than the accepted standards, whereas Famke Janssen is effective as the said woman, Kamala. Episode 5.24 seems to owe a lot to the popularity of the movie "Ghost", since in it Ensign Ro and La Forge become ghosts of sorts after a strange transporter malfunction, with the Enterprise crew going through them. The two work as a good team in order to get back their physical bodies, and the story is both creepy and clever at the same time. The penultimate episode, 5.25, "The Inner Light", is also rightfully hailed as one of the best "Star Trek" episodes of all time, a small chef-d'oeuvre. In it, Picard is zapped by an alien probe and he finds himself living as Kamin, married and with a family on planet Kataan. Out of sheer respect towards it, the best thing is to say as little about the plot as possible, since the surprises and revelations at the end are so rewarding that they must be experienced in person. Suffice to say it is a philosophical contemplation about some timeless themes in life (transience and the fragility of memory; an interrupted life; the "what if?" alternative life). Its finale is a catharsis, and is arguably the saddest, most mature and emotional "Next Generation" episode ever. The final scene featuring Picard is so subtle that it is a delight: only few writers are able to say so much with just one little gesture. The last episode, 5.26, is a mixed bag: it starts off great and mysterious, with the Earth archeologists finding a relic of Data's head in an area that was shut for 500 years, and then the Enterprise crew teleports to a different planet, to a cave, where strange beings are "out of phase" in time and are thus invisible to everybody. Data thus volunteers to use a device to go "out of phase" in time, disappears, and the whole sequence where Riker, Troi and Worf are only hearing Data's voice of how he describes the alien beings made out of light has some suspense that is stronger than a horror film. Unfortunately, this is followed by a silly plot where Data finds himself on Earth in the 19th century, which is kind of corny. Still, the guest appearance by Mark Twain is delicious, especially when the said writer has a long rant about Creationists during a party: "That the whole world got by for such a great long while with no humans around to fill up space. I suppose Mr. Wallace and his supporters would say that the Earth needed all that time to prepare itself for our illustrious arrival. Why the oyster alone probably required 15 million years to get it come out just right. Heh!"
Grade:++
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