A Look at Allegiance (TNG)

[@KingOfDoma]

I never found the Bolian with hair to be weird. The only Bolians we'd seen up to that point were male, so I just assumed that Bolian women had hair as part of the species' sexual dimorphism. Commenting on it would be like seeing a human with boobs and going "that's odd..."

[@Superphilipp]

It is pretty odd tho

[@KertaDrake]

@@Superphilipp But does go a long way to explaining why there's a Bolian barber on the ship!

[@thegreenmanofnorwich]

I assumed it might be a personal fashion thing. After all, people wear wigs, shave their heads, get tattoos or make any other number of cosmetic changes.

[@gingergrant1057]

I always thought hair was an indicator of age “the Ensign” seemed younger than the Barber aboard the Enterprise. And that they (uniformly) go bald by late 20s.

[@Thurston86]

I like that everyone has made up their own head cannon for Bolian hair. 😂 For my part, I too thought it was their form of sexual dimorphism. Female Bolians have hair, males do not. But I like the idea of the entire species going bald in their 20’s so I’m sticking with that! Lol.

[@MerelyAFan]

Allegiance always felt like two potentially strong episodes weakened by their pairing. Picard facing that sort of puzzle and the crew gradually questioning the behavior of their Captain could be explored so much more, yet both feel a bit undercooked due to the split story. Combine that with the lack of emotional tension, and you have an episode that just feels like another day at the office for everyone on the ship.

[@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999]

Yeah exactly! Both were a bit half-baked and just stuck together. I like the idea but it could have been done better.

[@maisiesummers42]

Amazing that Worf interpreted that nod correctly, and trapped them instead of vaporising them.

[@sargon6000]

I guess these aliens must have come back and replaced Picard after TNG ended. Explains the behavior of TNG movies Picard. And the PIC one.

[@Meushell]

😂 That’s hilarious. “Contain us, will you? See how you like this!” I wonder what did did with the real Picard. Maybe he’s living among duplicates without realizing it.

[@aramfingal5180]

No the Picard in STP is the wimpy one from "Tapestry", who never got stabbed by the Nausicans

[@owlsayssouth]

I still hold that everything is just in the nexus after Picard goes inside. In reality, he died on the bridge and kirk lived.

[@Keltaryn]

That's so strange - I've never seen the other Picard as anything other than an instrument of the aliens - because this episode has 2 different psychological experiments going on and they spelled out the one in the room, wasn't the other one obvious? "What's the difference between an authority figure you trust and a figure abusing their authority?" that's the premise of AltPicard and it starts from the moment he's replaced. Sudden change in orders with no sense or explanation because he can. He separates Riker from everyone else, makes him feel special but uses him to maintain distance. He uses work as an excuse to get near the Doc and make romantic overtures. Starts to seduce someone beneath him in the power structure but is completely unclear to keep her guessing at what's going on. (not a commentary on the pairing itself) the fact that he chose someone that might be receptive (to a point) doesn't change the power imbalance. My point is I never saw this as really Picard, it's the aliens studying the behaviour with the premise "you say these things are wrongs but no one's saying anything against them" UNTIL the episode's at it's most dire, most obvious point: everyone's about to die and AltPic doesn't care and THEN they unite against his abuse of authority. But not until it threatened everyone all at once. I don't enjoy this episode but not because I think it's bad or boring, I find it skin-crawlingly accurate that people can be divided and made so vulnerable so easily - whether you're in an obviously bad situation or a situation that USED to be good. This episode also offers no insight that's helpful for others in these situations; like waiting until it's critical to unite together, or revealing someone's manipulations and you'll all be a team against them? Not true, and not the best solutions. This episode tends to make me both angry and sad.

[@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999]

Nice analysis. I thought it was done pretty well too. It did seem as in AUPicard was either a) innocently exploring all the privileges and different things he could do thanks to his status and personal connections or b) basically the same but with a more malevolent intent. I tend to see it as the first one. You make a good point tho about how it's all too easy for an irresponsible or unethical or manipulative person to abuse their position of authority for personal gain or just for amusement.

[@NeoTechni]

I like your dig at how stupid the premise of STD is

[@Deadxman616]

Really no one has pointed out the TNG predicted the escape room fad

[@thebaccathatchews]

Four Characters In Search of an Exit

[@furonguy42]

What I find to be most interesting about this episode is that Mitena's Cadet uniform is effectively what would eventually become the main uniforms on DS9 and Voyager; albeit without the high-collared undershirt. This was about 3 years before DS9 debuted, so its not like they threw that jacket on her because they already had some made for the spinoff. And later episodes of TNG would use a palette-swap of the regular TNG uniforms for Cadets instead of the DS9 jackets. I guess Picard must have taken photos of his time in captivity and Starfleet Command saw them and went "Oh, that's neat, lets make that our next major change to the uniform code!".

[@ImaginaryTerrie3]

"So there is nothing for you to eat?" You had to ask.

[@JHorsti]

Little fun fact about the guy who plays Esoqq: He's a german actor called Reiner Schöne, who voiced Darth Vader in the german dub of Revenge of the Sith and some other EU stuff as well.

[@comentedonakeyboard]

If you tip 20% in a North Korean five Star Hotel, you'll get an extra Kim Il Sung Portrait.

[@jodieg6318]

I remember a Twilight Zone episode Five Characters In Search Of An Exit, amd it seems to have been the blueprint for "characters stuck in random place and find a way out" plot. While TZ episode was an exercise in Absurdist philosophy and existentialism, the true strength of such a plot, even in the TZ episode, lies in it not being explained. Being true to the Absurdist school of thought, it's up to the viewer to make their own meaning out of it.

[@antoniocurcio693]

Four people trying to do a task and one of them is an imposter? Tng doing Among Us before Among Us was ever a thing.

[@marshallhuffer4713]

I don't get how those aliens are able to be so effective if they have no concept of leadership.

[@theuncalledfor]

They're not. They just have really advanced tech. Which, considering how _stupid_ they are, implies they've been around for a loooong time, otherwise they never could have reasonably advanced this far.

[@MorgenthauMusic]

I absolutely love the fake Picard - his weird and (for the viewer, at least) entertaining interactions with the crew, culminating in his legendary rendition of Heart of Oak! And Mr. Tholl is so hilariously annoying, alternately complaining about Picard and begging for his help, because he is running his mouth off in front of the clearly dangerous Esoqq who can't stand him and is in danger of starving lol ...

[@ZergrushEddie]

2:49 is my go to example to show the difference in Old and New Trek. The Prime Number thing is something that has been hypothesized on how humans could find alien intelligence or how humans could show we are sentient/intelligent rather than merely alive. It is a cute little moment that nerdy folks will probably get a kick out of and to those that have no idea it doesn't feel out of place. That same type of moment, a love of all things nerdy, is handled in New Trek by a character shouting "this is the power of math, people!" and high-fiving a friend.

[@Robizoid]

I see this episode has a goofy alternate title "A Tale Of Two Picards". We have main Picard who is his usual stoic and private self and the imposter Picard who is exuberant and a bit of a horn dog! WOOF, WOOF!

[@scockery]

The twist should've been that the strange-behaving Picard on Enterprise was the real Picard and imprisoned Picard was the fake. But then how does it end? No I got a better one, we start the episode with the imprisoned Picard wearing the season 1-2 uniform. The real Picard was abducted months before, every season 3 episode till then was fake Picard. When real Picard returns he's like "Beverly? What are you doing here?"

[@Tricob1974]

Going by how Esoqq responded to Picard's questions, our alien friend was probably referring to himself rather than his species as a whole. In the Middle Ages, some lands had royalty eating food that wasn't very filling, and also didn't stick with you long. Consequently, if such a royal were to go without food, he was doomed to starve to death in less than a week. Esoqq was probably eating a similar diet.

[@baronsengir187]

One of my favorite fun episodes.

[@wdcain1]

I like the idea of each crew member struggling at what point they should mutiny. Riker would only do it once the ship was in actual danger. Crusher and Troi would probably do it at the beginning just on a feeling something was wrong while Data and Worf wanted to see Picard actually act odd. This is actually really good character work right here.

[@spartacus36526]

Love Allegiance. I was predicting a 6/10 but I could tell from the first 4-5 minutes of the review that Chuck was not going to score it that high.

[@thegreenmanofnorwich]

"Damn monoliths are really getting pushy these days" I really like that line. Some bolians may wear wigs as a fashion thing. I mean loads of humans do. I liked the story on the Enterprise more than the captivity story. I find that sort of mystery and changing the status quo really compelling

[@Robizoid]

Star Trek with their own Dr. Smith? Oh, the pain of it all!

[@KertaDrake]

The whole Bolian with hair thing would go a long way to explaining why there's a Bolian barber on the ship... That one thing never made sense unless you've seen this episode to realize "Oh yeah, they CAN have hair!"

[@Rocketboy1313]

I like this episode in general, aside from the intensely goofy aliens at the end.

[@IN-tm8mw]

i remember calling them "office nerds" when i first saw them. but yes, i agree, i really enjoyed the episode.

[@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999]

Yeah this one just needed some extra work. It's like they filmed the first draft instead of trying to finish fleshing out the script first.

[@Redrally]

Huh, I remember liking this episode when I first saw it. Granted I was a kid - I'll need to re-watch it sometime...

[@BOTHthosearetaken]

I liked this better the second time I saw it when it was a Doctor Who episode called The God Complex.

[@teddyboragina6437]

its reviews like this that remind me how very few times I radically (IE by 3 or more points) disagree with chuck's score.

[@dm121984]

Indeed. Chuck is generally in line with my own thoughts on media. Especially how crap the prime directive is as shown in TNG and VOY.

[@planescaped]

The only review I've ever radically disagreed with was twisted of all things. No way would I say that is a 1 out of 10. It's not _that_ bad.

[@myriadmediamusings]

While there are times I disagree with him, I appreciate his stance on reviewing and scoring stuff in comparison to other works in a group as opposed to a nebulous thing, whether it’s an episode as part of a show or a movie as part of a franchise.

[@Johnsavage1]

One point that's always bothered me about this one is the force field at the end feel like it could have come in handy when ever there was a intruder aboard.

[@Meushell]

I don’t know. Wouldn’t they have to happen to be in that one little spot?

[@Johnsavage1]

@@Meushell See i don't even know what the rules are about it it's never used before or after and why is it only that spot .

[@allanolley4874]

They do actually occasionally make tactical use of internal forcefields but it is pretty inconsistent, for example I think it is in Brothers when Data has taken control of the ship he makes his way from the Bridge to the transporter room by walking down a hallway and having any possible interference blocked off by internal forcefields popping up through the hallway as he moves. There are probably some other examples of internal forcefield being raised in random parts of the ship used to good effect. The problem is one can think of a bunch of other cases where they should have been used and were not.

[@Here_is_Waldo]

Don't think too hard about forcefields. Remember that time in A Fist Full of Datas, where Worf built a personal forcefield out of his comm badge to stop bullets? A walkie-talkie turned into body armour, imagine how tough it would have been if it had been built specifically as a forcefield. Now that would be a handy device to bring with them on away missions.

[@DrewLSsix]

If I could have had a go at a re write I would have made both Picards real, instead of some alien d bag doing random shit for lols we would have actual Picard acting un inhibited due to the effects of being scanned and duplicated. The other Picard and the other captives being duplicates or simulations based on these scans so they could be studied, you get actual Picard facing his repressed nature and Duplicard working it his/it's true nature and being compelled to make a choice in line with his morality.

[@rockinbells8351]

This is one of my favorite episodes......to make my own rifftrax to anyway. I may have watched way too much mst3k as a kid.

[@boobah5643]

Too much _MST3K?_ Is that even possible?

[@Willpower-74205]

Picard has a not-exactly Dave Bowman monolith experience. It's not full of stars. 😁

[@Vanessinha91Pucca]

lol @ spock's invented sister

[@myriadmediamusings]

I dont hate Discovery but yeah I do chuckle everytime it becomes the butt of jokes in the latest reviews.

[@jeremy1860]

You know, I feel the episode might have benefitted if it had just been entirely about Picard imprisoned with the other aliens. As soon as he's taken, that's it until we see him return to the Enterprise at the end, and before then we have nothing but him in that confined space and three strangers all working out the mystery of what's going on. That's be a great thing to watch 😊

[@Aragorn7884]

The episode is so-so, but I like it anyways 🤷‍♂

[@casbot71]

It would have been interested to introduce a Chalnoth character later on, at least they could have gotten more use out of the prosthetics. One that is tired of the anarchy of their species and is fascinated by other species ability to have order and hierarchical structures - and how that makes them stronger. But then that does step a bit on Worfs toes of being the big scary warrior alien who has adopted Human ways. There was a character example in (GURPS) Traveller ™ from a Anachist Species that was stunned at how organised Humans were _in running a refugee camp_ and so joined up in Scout service. He (or She!) could study Vulcan meditation and be a interesting character, and the big scary they pull out when necessary. And if the character is only for a season or two they can leave, having learnt enough about leadership and command to try and become a leader amongst their own species …what if they've instructed a Warlord, but a pro Starfleet Warlord.??

[@MrDj232]

You do tend to remember a species after one of them literally stabs your heart.

[@dupersuper1938]

What do the Nausicans have to do with this episode?

[@alexmacdonald1998]

I thought i was the only one who thought that dude was nausicaan. Apparently he a chalnoth. It was only after bnge watching tng and checking memory alpha that i realized. Dont feel too bad tho, apparently some of the creative team benind this episode made tje same error.

[@Deadxman616]

Fake Picard set phaser to panty drop

[@hariman7727]

"it's too late, I've seen everything."

[@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999]

bruh 😂

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

There's one thing that's always bothered me about this episode: what was the point of the experiment? What were they hoping to learn? They demonstrably already have some form of communication and cognition, so it should be obvious to them that when someone is told that they should do something, the only possible relevant outcomes are that they do the thing or they don't do the thing, and that which will largely depend on context. If they didn't already know everything these experiments could have taught them, they wouldn't have been able to conduct the experiments in the first place.

[@tristanwhite3472]

I would of gave this episode a 5.

[@rurrjh]

Did the Collaborator aliens inspire the similar aliens in Dr Who

[@DeconvertedMan]

where is the bathroom?

[@WDC_OSA]

The captives simply used the plot holes.

[@vivthefree]

@@WDC_OSA The plop holes.

[@Meushell]

Maybe Cochrane was right about people in the 24th century not needing one.

[@scockery]

They just use surrender monkey alien's mouth.

[@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999]

@@scockery lmfao savage

[@bradwolf07]

The little sh*t that would make Zapp Brannigan itching to kill him, he annoyed me thoroughly when I first watched this episode. I didn't mind the angry alien (actually kinda liked him). All in all, I did like this episode, just not that neutral punk

[@schwarzerritter5724]

With enemies, you know where they stand, but with neutrals, who knows?

[@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999]

He was really annoying. Lol. But I think that was supposed to be the point. But yeah. I think everyone was secretly cheering for him to get chowed on.

[@bradwolf07]

@@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999 yeah, you're probably right about that. That does seem logical about his character

[@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999]

@@schwarzerritter5724 and boy are they drab! No color at all...

[@pendragonshall]

This episode should have been treated like TOS season 2 ep. 4 Mirror Mirror. The fake Picard shouldn't have been shown but for a moment and then focus on the real Picard the entire time. Build up that drama/tension.

[@st.anselmsfire3547]

I remember thinking this was one of those weirdly overrated episodes. When people would claim it was one of the better ones, I always wondered if they'd seen the same episode I had. It's not a bad one, per se, and it has a few great moments, but the actual episode is a solid "meh" in my book. If it were a first or second season episode, I'd probably rate it higher since it's definitely better than the average from the first season, but where it popped up in the series, after the show had (finally) figured out what it wanted to do with itself, I'd probably rate this one a 4/10 too.

[@planescaped]

That's how I felt when i saw The Inner Light. >__>

[@hariman7727]

This episode is very much carried by the acting and sincerity of the acting throughout the episode. When you really look at the episode it's just kind of average, but all of the actors are selling it really well. I remember watching this and really focusing on and enjoying the parts with Picard and the other kidnapped prisoners, and wondering how long it would be until the crew realized what was happening and decided to stop obeying the fake Picard. I might rated a 5 or possibly even a six, but I understand why it gets rated a 4. There's just a ton of stuff that's better when you start analyzing it. It's really only below average because the next generation has a pretty high average.

[@theuncalledfor]

@@planescaped The Inner Light is one of the most disgusting and despicable episodes of anything ever. Those alien _monsters_ mind-[non-consensual sex]ed the first sentient thing their probe would find and it was played off as a positive thing somehow. I do not understand how so many people cannot see that.

[@hariman7727]

This was a decent episode. Not great, but enjoyable.

[@hawkanonymous2610]

First!

[@m.e.3862]

this is typical TNG..... yawnnn. Interesting ideas presented in the most boring way possible. I remember feeling that I had my time stolen from me after watching this. actually that's the feeling I had after watching 90 percent of TNG episodes. at least TOS had fun fistfights to watch. this is just damned boring.

[@YourCapyFrenBigly_3DPipes1999]

It's meant to be cerebral. Not about action and cheap thrills.