Star Trek The Next Generation Ruminations S7E06: Phantasms

[@speciesto3065]

I picture the Admiral's Banquet as more of a conference than a meeting. One of those all-day events that has a keynote speaker (probably the Starfleet Commander or the Federation President,) panel discussions, and break-out sessions on current topics of interest. At the end of the day there's a dinner and ceremony to honour someone as the "Admiral of the year" or something. It's really an annual event for Starfleet Admirals to gland-hand and congratulate each other for "what a good job we're doing," and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those Admirals are old and even semi-retired (think of Picard meeting Admiral Satie there!). I can see Picard not at all wanting to go to something like that on invitation--especially since he is probably well versed on all of the topics discussed, and he doesn't want to be stuck at a three hour dinner with a table of Admirals who tell stories that all start with "back when I was a captain 55 years ago..."

[@ELEKTROSKANSEN]

Lore, please allow me to express my gratitude for your Star Trek work on the channel. 2020 is the most Star Trek year in my life. Due to the pandemic I'm working from home since March. I thought it will be a good pretext to watch Voyager, which I missed as a teenager. I knew your channel already, so every episode was followed by your Rumination. It was an awesome experience, to see how you progressed, as you started that series in 2014 I believe. I was sure the pandemic will be over by then, but June came and we were still on home office. So... I started watching DS9, of which I only knew the first season from my teenage years. Again, each episode followed by your Rumination. Then DS9 ended, and I re-watched TNG for the 3rd time in my life. Guess whose videos accompanied every episode..? I'm so glad a guy like you exist. I don't want to go into "creepy" territory, as I'm doing YT too, and I know how... weird it is when a person you never met says stuff like "oh how I'd like to have a beer with you" :D So, just know this: I honestly think the world is a better place with people like you walking among us. You bring joy to people and if you ever doubt if your efforts matter - please, don't. They do! Thank you for all these hours of thoughtful content. And, please let me express my little... well, not a "request", more like "hope". I really, really, REALLY wish you'll get to TOS ruminations someday. I just started watching it around a month ago, this being my first attempt to watch the whole thing. I always appreciated TOS, loved the movies, had respect for the series, but always found them a bit too outdated for me to watch. Well, maybe I grew old enough, because now I can't stop. I'm nearing the end of the second season, and I love it. It's so full of hope. Such different show from the garbage CBS is giving us now... Such optimistic piece of art, from decades ago. Sure, there are some outdated things in it, some can be even taken as funny nowdays (like all the delicately sexist things Kirk says in some episodes), but overall - it makes me feel better in this dreary world we now live in. I live in Poland, which is on an verge of civil war these days, every day I hear people marching down the street trying to fight the other side, and the only thing that really makes me forget about this stuff just for a little bit is this old show from the 60's.. and I miss listening to your commentaries after I watch an episode! Live long and prosper, Lore!

[@cameronpolytalented]

The scene with Data stabbing Troi IS included in my complete STTNG Blu-ray box set manufactured in the UK and then shipped to Canada via the fine people at Amazon.

[@ramble_0]

The Data, Word and Spot scene is one of my favourite funny Data moments. It's a good demonstration of how much he's developed as a character. Also Worf's deadpan response just adds to the whole moment

[@danielyeshe]

There is an old joke about meetings. 'It is a good job we had an hour long meeting. It saved us from a five minute email!' As to the food could it be a status thing? Like a big business meeting might have fancy food like caviar and champagne but most people would probably prefer beer and pizza.

[@Arbbal]

Not only that but all the food at the meeting would be presumably replicated, and there is the question as to whether or not real food is better than replicated.

[@DanielleWhite]

Due to a particular situation at a past job my mother once anonymously posted a sign on a committee meeting room door, "a committee is a group of people who alone can do nothing but can gather together to decide that nothing can be done."

[@neuroairman]

A banquet isn't a meeting.

[@fredaf3700]

Actually if I were rewriting TNG, I would have Geordi end up with Sonya Gomez. Sonya struck me as a better potential match for him than Liea Braums.

[@harpercole5321]

One of those S7 episodes that can easily be summarised in one sentence. Some of the dream imagery is fun - Crusher drinking Riker's brains comes to mind - but it doesn't linger long in the memory.

[@KneelB4Bacon]

3:45 (on Data being a matchmaker): I think Data would be great at that because being an android, he can offer a completely dispassionate opinion about relationships. So if Data says there's something wrong or unhealthy about your love interest, he probably has a completely logical reason for saying so.

[@neuroairman]

I'm surprised Lore didn't mention that Data experiences emotions in this episode. Data experiences fear. Data's nightmares disturb him so much that he "screams" robotically in the dream and his fear persists even while he's awake.

[@jeffreymaxson6216]

You mentioned Genesis when Data's male cat turns into a female lizard... That's my favorite episode of Star trek I can't wait for your take on that lol.

[@Planetdune]

I hardly ever remember my dreams, it happens when I wake up and remember it for a few seconds, but I can't even remember the last time that was...

[@rmsgrey]

This probably falls under the "bad management" umbrella, but some meetings are scheduled so that there's a spot in the schedule for that meeting when it is needed, rather than having to arrange the meeting at short notice.

[@GreenCauldron08]

It sounds like you're basically suggesting they turn this episode into "Data's Day 2.0" (Or maybe they could've called it "Data's Night" to tie in with the dreaming storyline?)

[@DanielleWhite]

In the late 1990s I had an electronic union catalog project that was quite intensive work. One night I had a dream in Z39.50. I hadn't thought about the "and then it became an episode of Voyager" point but now I never will not be able to see it (though we could argue Voyager lifted this page given the timeline.) My experience with meetings is in tech and with universities and corporations in the US. There I found a strong negative correlation between the level of the position who convenes the meeting and how productive it is. In my university work I the management structure was pretty shallow, with typically 2-3 people between me and the university chancellor or/president, so it tended to have higher levels often and run long. The problem of "justifying my job" was definitely present, particularly with a couple who took the "if nobody else knows what I do they can't fire me" attitude. At one well-known US public university I got to call one of the senior managers "ah, a bullshit artist!" and made a pop media reference (he was a CTO who had a Ph.D. in Philosophy.)

[@stevemanart]

16:00 I am completely on board with the Voyager comparison. Even as a kid, I was thinking that S7 felt like a different show then when Voy started I was like "Oh, its the same show" 18:30 I really wish we had that in every version of Trek, as soon as we get the characters established enough to have a day in the life be possible I wanted it.

[@jmiester25]

I love your jokes. Please keep making them.

[@maisiesummers42]

1:35 - Just because they can make anything they want, doesn't mean they make things that everyone will like. Especially when you're like Worf, who loves Klingon food and food that humans find disgusting (scrambled Owon eggs), and who probably finds the human-centric feast to be unpalatable.

[@nicolamarchbank1846]

In relation to the Data cake cutting incident, I'm British. We have very strict regulations about what you can show on TV at what time. The cut-off is considered 9pm after which family time ends. The Watershed as it is called, is non-negotiable without some form of control setting. The kit used for broadcasting Sky satellite channels, for example, have a PIN code system to encrypt access to adult-rated material before that time. You will simply see a static screen with a message requesting you put your PIN code in to access the program if say a movie with a rating of I think 15 certificate is airing during the day. So long as you know the PIN code and you are the right age, this works fine, so my parents for example used to decide on a case-by-case basis whether this was used and purposefully didn't share the code when we were kids. The Watershed itself covers the broadcast of violence, sexual references and relationships, language use, controlled substances ranging from alcohol and drugs, to tobacco and even junk food, the presentation of gambling, political content, advertising in-general, and other topics deemed as being more appropriate for adults or necessitating particular care and attention, which as you can imagine has real implications for soap operas which generally air between 7-9pm and have resulted in some unusual substitutes for swear words ("flippin'" instead of f**king for example and the use of regional slang for insults and more colourful expressions of emotion), and alternate forms of violence (slaps and hair-pulling). There have been exceptions, such as an episode of a soap opera called Hollyoaks airing a special featuring male-on-male rape in I think 2002, that went out at 9pm accordingly, with the follow-ups showing in the usual 6.30pm slot. This show had its own more grown-up spin-off, partly as a result, and confirms that issues-based storytelling if you really mean to do it properly, sometimes means that content has to be treated with immense care and moved to a more appropriate time of the day. The broadcasters maintain an ongoing discussion on the precise details of how these rules are applied to allow for social changes and individual storytelling needs, however, other shows have managed to deal with issues including for example, child sexual abuse (Emmerdale with two different members of the Dingle family) without having to move the episode and whilst being compliant with the Watershed - it's just how thoughtful you want to be with it. However, to say that the regulations are very heavily monitored not just by network censors but by an independent, government-funded regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) which also covers Telecoms and postal regulation, and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), is putting it mildly, there's a reason why a lot of shows air close-to-live but with a 20 or 30-second delay to allow for an edit 'bleep' if necessary. Other practical examples are that tobacco advertising is straight-up illegal ANY time of day (something that has had implications for the broadcasting of Formula 1 motor racing as an example) and during Election Day broadcasters are allowed to show people arriving to vote but NOT inside the polling station (photography in a polling station is illegal) and note how many seats the outgoing administration had, but otherwise basically nothing until the polls are closed and the results shows can begin. Radio 4's stalwart 'The Today Show' gets particularly creative breaking out people like poets, artists, public intellectuals, and other people who tend to get less attention to speak on their specialist areas, to fill up the time because they basically cannot discuss politics - their main content. The relevance of this from your point of view is that the BBC aired Star Trek in the 1990s generally at around 6 or 6.30pm in a post dinner-time slot as part of a scheduling which saw shows like Doctor Who repeats (mostly 1970s stuff with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker which were designed for the early evening slot anyway) and other, similar shows, Buck Rogers, Space:1999, Gerry Anderson puppet shows, etc. Given that Star Trek was made for an American market where it would air a little later on, at around 8pm, this automatically means a Watershed review per episode and the occasional omission was required, an example of which is the Data cake-cutting moment. The most glaring example I can think of for Star Trek was 'The Higher Ground' being banned outright for its references to Irish unification through violence being treated in a neutral fashion and the presentation of the protagonist. UK broadcasters had and have to comply with strict regulations as to how terrorism is presented, which is what Irish unification through violence is. Terrorism, rather than political change through peaceful means, which is what is probably happening at present, is NOT how things should occur in a democracy and is therefore a bad thing, which you wouldn't know from the episode. At the time, the Troubles were still taking place in Northern Ireland, and people were still being killed and maimed as a result of an inability to go about politics in a healthy or sane manner, and where parties were reduced to the status of mouthpieces and apologists for hate and violence. The Omagh bombing which killed 29 people including a pregnant woman, children, and Spanish tourists, going about their every day Saturday in the centre of town and where the bombers purposefully gave false information to ensure maximum casualties, took place as late as 15 August 1998. The episode in the Data-Picard exchange near the beginning, could also be argued to be questioning the territorial integrity of the UK itself as a state, so as the state broadcaster, you can understand there were actually two problems here. The British experienced other politically motivated attacks within recent memory at the time, such as the Lockerbie Air Disaster, which killed 270 people (11 of them on the ground), many of them American undergraduates, when a Pan Am 747 airliner was destroyed by bombing and leveled parts the small Scottish town below just before Christmas 1988, and you have a culture unlikely to be all that receptive of the basic tone of the piece. Imagine a British sci-fi show implying that political extremists in the US were successful in their goals or the break-up of Spain through political violence (Basque violent separatists ETA still being active at the time), not being treated as something sad and distressing and the antithesis of good democratic practice, never-mind that people were still dying for no good reason, and you can understand why the BBC took the position it did. The fact that the script passed without an awareness of how that might look to people who aren't American underscores how off-the-mark the discussion of the future of Northern Ireland and by extension, the break-up of the UK, no matter how it may take place, in the US actually was and possibly still is. Given the particular sensitivities, I am genuinely unsure that the episode could have been edited sufficiently enough to comply and still leave something coherent, so they chose not to show it. RTE, the Irish broadcaster was also uncomfortable with it for similar reasons. The most overt non-Trek example of the Watershed having a dramatic effect that I can think of in genre broadcasting was an episode of Farscape called 'Scratch'n'Sniff'. Farscape, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired in the BBC's standard genre post-dinner 6 or 6.30pm slot in the 2000s. The problem here was that as the show (and Buffy) developed it became less and less appropriate for that slot. They tried to edit 'Scratch'n'Sniff', which hinges on characters being under the influence of controlled substances, down to Watershed compliance, and cut it to ribbons, to the point that even they realised there was nothing coherent left and so they made a one-off special broadcast of that single episode at 9pm so they could air the episode at all, which for a show which was so serialised by that the time, was necessary. I can't remember exactly how they handled it but given I watched Farscape avidly, I remember what a weird situation it was that they were effectively admitting that they were basically broadcasting the show at the wrong time in the first place - all because they saw Henson puppets and thought that sci-fi=kids show (blame Michael Grade, Controller of BBC1 1984-86 and his quest against Doctor Who in-office, for the sci-fi=kids show idea maintaining currency in the BBC into the 1990s). Normally the censorship arrangement does actually work reasonably well, it ensures that kids don't see things they don't need to or shouldn't, supports a reasonably healthy democratic process, ensures appropriate advertising and forces shows that go out before 9pm to show due care and attention and even imagination about how they handle real-world issues, it does have the odd quirk here and there.

[@RA-VEN8]

Will you be going over TOS?

[@jerryharris876]

1:40. Why is the meeting bad? Commander Hutchinson... "call me Hutch."

[@PencilManners]

Hey quick question Picard, why is the Enterpise having a new warp core fitted mid transit? Shouldn't this procedure be carried out while you are docked at a starbase? So any potential hiccups won't leave you stranded?

[@totemictoad4691]

i mean the 'disturbing image' = 'nightmare' is a reasonably easy to see shorthand, like so many shorthand codes in media, its rarely true or real, but we all recognise what your referencing

[@athrunzala6919]

Now that your rumination is over, will you answer the phone!

[@donovanbradford8231]

Which types of nightmares were they, TOS nightmares bad creature effects or season 3 writing. Or were they TNG nightmares where every episode is Wesley outsmarting everyone and even Q can't fix it.

[@francoislacombe9071]

Ok, now you have to make a Lore D'oeuvres video baking a cellular peptide cake with mint frosting.

[@oddish4352]

Mmmmm. Delicious.

[@ShamrockParticle]

15:31 😄😆😅🤣 moment, then you go into explanation with the same staff working on both shows 👍 Great moment at the end discussing the Lovecraftian horror and rule-breaking, pros and cons aside. I like the "day in the life" idea. Like Data's Day but for a biologically bona fide character.

[@Eelco_de_Boer]

Summary: The crew help Data investigate when his dream program suddenly begins generating nightmares which make him act strangely. Meanwhile, Captain Picard attempts to avoid attending a boring Starfleet banquet. (it's the episode with Troi as a delicious mint-frosted cake! And Worf taking care of Spot. It's quite funny, but not great.)

[@adeftonic]

It might have been censored on BBC and broadcasting on the 4 (then, is 5 now) general channels. on Sky/ Cable the stabbing scene was shown at release. Although I think it was censored if it was shown at 5pm. The reason for it I believe is Britain at that point saw a spike in Knife crime and stabbings.

[@paulscott2037]

Definitely agree about the Voyager ending however I'm not sure a slice of life episode would have worked either. Particularly when that is effectively what Lower Decks is. Which works because we follow both the senior staff and the Ensigns. But by this point in season 7 e do already have a good idea what a typical day on the Enterprise is like. Also, in regards to Picard, it's not that he's going to a meeting where issues of merit are going to be discussed. By the sounds of the banquet it is a formal dinner which I suppose is meant as a way for Admirals to get into a room together and pat each other on the back while making small talk with a number of assembled Captains from their respective commands. I can't imagine anything Picard would hate more than being trapped in a room with with his superior officers and being forced to be polite while they talk about their boring, logistical work (cos you always end up talking about work at these things) or worse being presented by Nakamura to everyone like he was some kind of prize pony. "Look everyone, I finally got Jean Luc Picard himself to attend. Starfleet's finest. Oh do tell us about your latest diplomatic mission to the Epsilon Alpha sector, Picard. It's hard to believe you've still had the same command for seven years. You must be getting bored by now. How about a change in scenery?" He. Would. Hate. It. The comment about the food in particular is probably more indicative of Picard's mentality. He doesn't call it bad, he calls it uninteresting, which I'd say just is personal opinion about the kind of standard meals you get at these events which I would typically describe as being made to look elaborate but seemingly always taste the same... Honestly that has been my consistent experience with banquets or formal dinners and the like. Because ultimately you have a room of a hundred plus people and you need to create courses which they will all enjoy... So you end up with foods which are kinda tasty, certainly balanced but are just a little uninspired. Picard would much rather either eat something simple and home cooked or some unusual alien dish that he can savour and explore. So you just end up with him in a room with people he doesn't like (because seemingly the only admirals Picard genuinely likes are dead) with food he would normally not eat, making conversation about things he doesn't care about.

[@SchneeflockeMonsoon]

Data is going to sleep because Picard is doing his absolute best to slow Geordi’s efforts, but he doesn’t want it to be obvious. As for Data’s sleeping in, I think it’s because he hasn’t really experienced a deliberate dream yet. His dreams have been random functions so far, but this one was a deliberate sequence to try and communicate information from his subroutines to his primary program. So this dream has a defined runtime, and until it is completed: it cannot stop, so Data’s other functions are put aside until it finishes. The real question is: why did they completely ignore Data sleeping in? They investigate for a few seconds, can’t find anything obvious, and decide “eh, you’re just sleepy”. What?! He’s an Android! When something goes wrong, you can’t blame human error. You have to find the flaw in the code or it will happen again, and they found: nothing. Put him in his lab and let Geordi run a micro-scan on him circuit by circuit if you have to. Ah… Sigmond Fraud… yeah, I got nothing. My question is: why was Crusher drinking from Riker’s head? I get the cake was the cake thing, and the straw; I completely get the object significance, but why specifically those two as the villain placeholders? Why was it Mint Frosting?

[@user-yv4mm6bx3c]

Slice of life episodes work well when the characters are established, much like this case. Seven years into a series. We the audience are obviously committed. We would get more of this in DS9. As I get older, DS9 seems to get better and better, for the most part.

[@PeterSwinkels]

7:33 we don't have ai remotely advanced enough to approach something like Data, who knows how an android would work.

[@self-transforming_machine-elf]

gooping is real nightmare fuel

[@mr51406]

8:37 It reminds me of an episode of Frasier, the one when his brother Niles replaced him on his psych phone-in show. Niles stared by saying: “whereas my brother is a Freudian, I am a Jungian. So there will be no blaming mother today!” Even if it’s the same studio, another Star Trek/Frasier crossover would have been perhaps over the top... It’s not the Simpsons. I love slice of life episodes! A slice of life with mint frosting! 😋 True fans always prefer them. But producers hate them. Frankly, an ordinary slice of life episode is totally better than a mediocre threat of the week episode.

[@Crazael]

Never underestimate the capacity of people to be self important jackasses. Also, i would definitely keep the dream stuff in the SoL version of the episode. Have it come out to be Data is detecting some minor hardware problem that is getting worse, but isnt yet bad enough to be worth fixing. But his background processes are still noting it and so it shows up in his dreams. Its not something that would ever get bad enough to risk the ship if it fails, so fixing it just isnt a priority. And just because i like subversions, id have it fixed off screen during routine maintenance by a no-name crew member towards the end of the episode around when Data figures out whats been causing his weird dreams.

[@sarahlamoureux1454]

I enjoy this episode for the most part. But there's something I find problematic about it: shortly after Data is diagnosed with "a new neurosis", he attacks Troi. I can't help but feel this is another example of the inaccurate and stigmatizing association between mental illness and violence. This moment by itself isn't a huge problem; it's that it's part of a trend. We already have Psycho, Misery, Fatal Attraction, Split, and so on. Maybe I'm bothered too easily by this. And Star Trek certainly has many, many thoughtful examinations of mental illness ("Extreme Risk", "Raven", and "Memorial" on Voyager; "Hard Time" and "It's Only a Paper Moon" on DS9; T'Pol's trellium addiction on Enterprise, just to name some favorite examples). I just wish the episode could have done things differently.

[@wcoleman99]

This should've been a Barclay episode. Make it a whole he's relapsing holoaddict.

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

why is the food bad? because admirals (in the setting) have bad tastes... the kind of food they like is strange.

[@1300l]

I love the day in the life on the Enterprise episodes. The future that Rodenbery created and later the other producers expanded is just amazing. Star Trek i the show that don't need Action, hence why new trek fail so much, too much action.

[@corssecurity]

That's interesting I saw a few fan cuts where the soap opera bits were cut out and just getting on with the episode.

[@grantlloyd9131]

10:53 - I have.

[@rexremedy1733]

I love the blob movie!

[@thexalon]

A "slice of life" you say. Maybe concentrating on people we've seen a lot but haven't gotten to know yet, say the folks of lower ranks. Yeah, that would never work.

[@ChocolatierRob]

Picard is captain of _The Enterprise._ *Everything* else is boring in comparison. Maybe the other captains don't find is as boring as he does...

[@cullysloy2705]

TNG= Slice of Life TOS= Threat of the Week

[@Slevin-Kelevra]

FIRST! EPIC! YEAH BUDDY!

[@quasimodojdls]

Going to have to disagree with you on this one, Lore. It's easily one of the worst episodes of Season Seven thus far. I would say only "Descent, Part II" was worse. This is the first time I have to agree with the whole "They Ran Out of Ideas" trope for Season Seven. It's really nothing but a series of goofy scenes that are weird of the sake of weird. Picard not wanting to go to the admirals' meeting? I'm sorry, but... really?! This is what passes for tension now? Picard doesn't want to spend a few hours schmoozing because he finds it tedious? It can't be any more tedious than this concept. And LaForge not being interested in the ensign who is crushing on him? Really?! This is the man who once fell in love with a woman he hadn't even met! And he's just like "nah, not interested"? Really?! And, why in God's name wasn't Troi used in the holodeck search through Data's dreams? Use the one member of the crew who is actually trained in the interpretation of dreams? Nah, we'll have the Chief Engineer and Captain do it instead. Um, okay. I mean, I know that Troi is often misused as a character, but this misuse has to take the cake (with mint frosting). The only things that elevate it are the scene with Worf and Spot and the wonderfully evocative atmosphere of Data's attack on Troi. 4/10

[@cauldronfamiliar3339]

In the UK particularly when this episode came out there was a lot of knife crime, they don't have a gun problem in the same way the US has but they do have a very serious knife crime issue that has left the British very sensitive to knives in general, that's the reason for the censorship.

[@davidbanner1020]

Fake news.