Star Trek The Next Generation Ruminations S5E10: New Ground

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[@rebeccaw6253]

Alexander is freakin adorable and I like the way his character/presence helps bond Worf and Troi. I assume Lwaxana’s episode with Alexander is hated by most but I adore her and her interactions with Alexander...Through Alex she shares her philosophy of being filled with thousands little characters/personalities. A thought that has stuck with me! ...Which reminds me of the artifact given to Picard by his old mentor in The Chase: the Kurlan Naiskos. (A vessel filled with a community of small figurines.) Anyway, I think Worf as a character may have turned out cold and repetitive (“ah my name,” “ah politics”) without a story like Alexander. (tho I do love politics) Thanks for the rumination Lore

[@damastamindz]

We saw some lane travel in Voyager. In Dragons Teeth specifically. The subspace corridors let they travel like 300 light years in a few minutes!

[@sharkdentures3247]

When you said "I don't know" I found myself remembering a funny, old Bill Cosby routine "Brain Damage". And part of the reason why it was so funny is that it properly reflects the frustration (at the time) and the amusement (after the fact) of children saying "I don't know".

[@quasimodojdls]

I've always liked Alexander as a character. I never understood why so many people find him so annoying and outright insufferable. Is it simply because he doesn't bow to Worf's wishes to be a warrior? I like the fact that this relationship is rather dysfunctional; it makes it more "real" than, say, the kid from "The Bonding", you know - the one who responded to news of his mother's death with only "how, sir?". In fact, I often take Alexander's side in his dealings with Worf because, let's face, Worf is a bad parent. He tries, which is to his credit, but he is ultimately a bad father. I guess my own personal biases on parenting make me see Alexander in a more sympathetic light than most people. The A-plot is gold. I love it. The B-plot, yeah eject it entirely and nothing would be lost. Here's a huge problem with it that Lore didn't address.... Why do TNG's writers have such a hard time understanding that space is three dimensional? This isn't the first time this has come up. You don't need to go through the Wave, people! Just go over or under it! God! 7/10

[@Crazael]

I personally never had a problem with Alexander as a character beyond just not finding him particularly interesting. But I rarely have much interest in child characters in a show like this. But I do like the way him and Worf interact. Worf clearly wants to be a good father, and is doing his best, but just can't quite figure out how to do it. But really, I don't think I'd be any better in his situation. As for the kid in The Bonding, I can actually see myself reacting like that to that kind of news. I might have a more 'standard' reaction later, probably in private, but my immediate one would almost certainly be to find out more information.

[@BrickIntyre]

I am so glad you brought attention to the moment with Riker. A lot of people I talk to about this episode always miss that moment with him or dismiss it, but you're right! The way Riker got up and was just like "we got this!" is an excellent moment between them. I always liked how they built up the relationship between Worf and Riker but never drew attention to it. I feel like if they would have made it an obvious plot-point or talked about it out loud, it would have ruined what they built up through the series and movies. What do you think?

[@stevemanart]

My TRPG scifi setting uses a mix of Lane and Warp as the primary form of FTL. Lanes are exceedingly fast, but only really exist a small webs within heavily colonized areas. If you want to get to the galactic boonies you have to fire up your redshift drives and go at effectively a snails pace. Basically you can you one of drive relays to get from any of the core worlds to the edge of the southwestern fringe in less thine than it takes to fly from earth to proxima centauri at drive speed. In Star Trek terms, the drive relays go at warp 9.5, where as ship-scale redshift drives can reach at best around warp 5. 14:00 When I was in the Navy I was a section supervisor within the radar shop of an FA-18 naval air station. During my year and a half between becoming a petty officer and breaking my back, I had two different airmen go on limited duty due to their wives having kids. So I'm pretty sure that sort of thing isn't just common in Trek but in the actual military too.

[@Rasolisu]

On the lanes thing, Borg Transwarp Corridors are set up in Voyager to be like that. STO ramps that up with a network of Transwarp Corridors between starbases and various major planets.

[@SchneeflockeMonsoon]

(Note before I watch your video and while I’m barely starting to watch the episode: I find it hilarious Geordi mentions how cool it would be seeing Zephram Cochrane’a first warp flight. Just… wow.) Yeah, you mentioned it. Nevermind. Okay, I honestly really liked the concept of having planetary warp lane maker. I thought it was over-hyped, but then I realized it’s actually two devices in one: It’s a railroad to help with the federation (that I ABSOLUTELY thought should have come up again with the warp space damage episode) and it’s also a long range planet killer. You cannot tell me Section 31 didn’t grab this station’s specks immediately and develop a few more planet warp guns for a rainy day. A scorched earth policy of the Dominion won the war, or maybe even an Anti-Borg gun if they ever have any big targets.

[@athrunzala6919]

Alexander grows up faster than Ian did back in "the Child" All those waves would be difficult to co-ordinate in high traffic systems, you'd need dozens of emitters all over the planet constantly shooting out waves and trying not to hit the sub-light traffic by accident as they get in or out of position.

[@oddish4352]

Ian would have been a great character for a year-long story arc: be born, crawl around, toddle awhile, grow up, experience childhood, adolescence, young adulthood. Serve aboard the ship in some capacity. Age, grow old, finally die peacefully with Troi and his other friends all around him. Last words, something like: "I came to understand what it is to be human and now, I think I do."

[@thegreatbaolmagician3032]

about the FTL engine, i will add also the "Jump drive" like in BSG

[@BrickIntyre]

Is it just me? I always pictured that BSG's Jump Drive and the Robotech Space Fold Drive were basically the same thing.

[@Norvo82]

The fact Worf and Alexander never got over their fraught father and son dynamic might have been repetitive and bad from a writing perspective, but it does feel very realistic. More often than not, fathers and sons keep having the same type of argument over and over again. It's all about pride, approval and acceptance. Add to that the element of Klingon honor and you're set for a lifetime.

[@andrewkyriacou6405]

So this episode is a bit of meh one of me. I like the Worf and Alexander stuff but not enough to rewatch the episode for it. Don't have much else to say about that part. As for the wave I actually have some thoughts on it, some of which I feel like you might have overlooked. First of all with regard to the problems it's having e.g. no long range communications: They're still in testing. I would expect that if further time and effort went into this project that they would come up with ways to overcome that problem. Now there are some uses I could quite easily see for this project: Energy/maintenance efficiency: If a ship needs to go from point A to B I expect that it would be useful in terms of saving strain on the warp core/crystals/insert reason for ships needing to have maintenance done after long term assignments, if the initial jump were done by wave. E.g. a ship was just built on Earth, now it's going to be deployed at the border of Klingon space for whatever reason. Use a wave to send the ship the large distance there so that it doesn't have to spend the days/weeks it would take for the ship to travel there under its own warp power. Then once it arrives it can patrol/investigate/whatever else it needs to do. Small ship transport: Shuttlecraft are renowned for either having no warp or very limited warp capability. What if someone wants to go to Risa again, well they can be dropped off at the nearest 'wave planet' and use a shuttle to be pushed to Risa rather than Geordie sitting in his shuttle going there at impulse (as little sense as that makes). More importantly it would make it easier to transport resources and personnel. Dump them in a cargo container/small transport and push them the long distance to their destination without needing to invest the time in a warp capable ship coming over and ferrying them there. The biggest one which granted is outside of show canon in a sense: This would be linked to the final season episode Force of Nature where it's discovered that warp drive is damaging the fabric of space. I'd like to believe that the science counsel had actually taken this research on board and the wave was one of the initiatives instigated as a way of reducing warp travel. Now that's obviously not true because Force of Nature wasn't conceived of yet but even without there I think there is definitely enough reason to believe that having an alternative to warp drive is a useful thing to explore and to have even before they knew the damage warp engines were causing. So I have no issue with the wave. It seems quite sensible to explore alternatives to me and that's what they're doing here.

[@paulscott2037]

As a kid I always hated Alexander but now as I've grown up I really don't mind when he shows up. The dynamic of Worf struggling to be a single parent is one that I think works quite well.

[@robertmartinu8803]

Without the soliton wave Alexander could have gotten himself in some other trouble, let's play in the cargo hold. Heavy, volatile stuff everywhere. Some extra time wouldn't have hurt to other plot, but we would have avoided the dropped tech because the prototype needs some fine tuning problem. Also the uselessness of the wave - with a genuine advantage Enterprise couldn't have cought up and solved the problem. Plot induced obsolescence of the new tech.

[@WhiteScarsEmo]

I wonder if Starfleet considered other applications of soliton wave tech. I wonder about it as a weapon delivery vehicle. Especially for hitting targets deep into enemy territory. Or just use the wave as a weapon itself.

[@francoislacombe9071]

My opinion of Alexander is that the character was was introduced just to make things more awkward between Worf and K'ehleyr, and then they sent him away to live with Worf's parents after K'ehleyr died. And that should have been the end of him, but they made the mistake of bringing him back here and could never figure out what to actually do with him past this episode.

[@quicksilvertongue3248]

I actually believe Troi and Worf match each other perfectly in a yin yang sort of way, and the idea of them bonding over Alex is awesome, if only that had actually happened (I'm willing to bet it's a huge part of the reason they became married in the other universe from Parallels, my second favorite episode in TNG). This episode is boring in itself, but it nicely sets up Cost of Living, one of my favorite episodes from later in this season, which both shows us Al's perspective and portrays Lwaxana almost entirely positively for the first time (in the wake of her character growth in Half A Life, her overall best ep, but which did start out with her still being the dreadful overbearing character from Haven and Manhunt).

[@roystonsbailey]

Worf as a bad father is a strange choice for ST writers to make, but it adds another interesting layer to his character.

[@KainiaKaria]

A Fist Full of Datas.

[@mattcat83]

I was never really irritated by Alexander back in the 90s and only noticed his irritating qualities after seeing the fan reactions online.

[@DrownedInExile]

I feel that Trek as a whole did Worf, Keylar, and Alexander a huge disservice. Continually portraying Worf as a bad father, Alexander always being bitter. And what about Keylar's family? Would have been nice to see future Alexander joining the Klingon diplomatic corps and following his mother's footsteps.

[@KnightRaymund]

I like Alexander well enough and his TNG episodes are decent. Fistful of Datas is great. His DS9 appearance is very bad and makes no sense though. But you're right that they often have the same overall theme to them of Alexander not listening and Worf trying to get him to be something he isn't. I generally sympathize with Alexander.

[@bbbbKeJodddd]

It's not fair to rate Alexander in a universe where Nog exists.

[@ThisVideoAnnoyedMe]

So sick of people instantly judging and declaring some new scientific or technological development a failure right from the start... Bro, just give it time, this was the first test, who knows how it can be improved and eventually made better with further progress.

[@AdamCollings]

I quite like Alexander on TNG. I appreciate the added family element which is rarely seen on Star Trek. But it bugs me that when he shows up on DS9, he has aged way too quickly. When we meet him in "Sons & Daughters", he should be approximately 8 years old.

[@Jason-jb3xt]

It is stated that Klingons age 3 times faster than humans, about 1 earth year is 3 klingon years. Then those lucky bastard get to live to nearly 200

[@oddish4352]

He's like a child on a soap opera. They age way faster than normal.

[@mr51406]

Melodramatic show. The teacher sounds exhausted, demoralized (or like she was reading from a cue card…). And obviously not too keen on having a Klingon kid. Compare her to Keiko who had energy and enthusiasm and was welcoming.

[@harpercole5321]

Not really an Alexander fan - "The Cost of Living" is maybe TNG's worst. This one's not too bad, just a little soapy, with one of those tacked on technobabble B plots that start to crop up a bit more often now.

[@Eelco_de_Boer]

Mem-Summary: Worf's son Alexander comes to live on the Enterprise; the crew helps guide a test vehicle for a revolutionary new form of interstellar travel.

[@PredatorianStyl]

The soliton wave subplot was just a completely unnecessary time filler. It changed the episode to the worse.

[@nickokona6849]

This episode goes firmly in the “skip it” category. I cannot stand Alexander shows. They somewhat redeemed it in DS9 a little. TNG just nope. Alexander in it? Pass. Wondering what you’d consider the Slipstream from Andromeda? Lane? Portal? A mix? Slipstream was the best thing they concerted in an otherwise not good show. Probably the best Alexander episode, but that’s a very low bar in my book.

[@KnightRaymund]

Redeemed in DS9? His DS9 episode was terrible and made no sense. He was better on TNG.

[@firepowerg]

FIRST!

[@nerdhems8309]

First