TNGS2: The Royale

Well dudes, I fucked up. I watched this episode and the next a while back and never screenshotted or wrote about them and now I'm screwed. The result has been me not watching any Trek and god damnit this will simply not stand. So, I'm going to write a few shitty paragraphs for each and move on. 700+ fucking episodes, they can't all be winners. Go fuck yourself.

Alright, so The Royal is my least favorite kind of episode - quirky situation makes characters act quirky and then everything goes back to normal. What do they call these, bottle episodes? Some shit like that where the arc of the series doesn't move at all.

Reading the episode notes, apparently this one started out cooler and was hacked up in committee to be the semi bland end result. I am of the opinion, especially lately, that greatness comes from when one guy is the driving force behind whichever creative endeavor. Or one team, or whatever, none of this design by committee bullshit. Once the executives get their grubby little paws on things, shit hits the fan. Look at South Park, or Louie, where they basically just hand those dudes bags of money through a slot in the door every month and they give them a new episode. And they are the best shows on TV! I digress.

So, The Royale consists of the enterprise finding a piece of an old NASA probe far off in the boonies, being confused, finding a place on the surface of a methane atmosphere planet that has a pocket of air and a door on a soundstage.

Strange fucking door in the middle of nowhere on an uninhibited planet! Better walk in!

So they do, and immediately become stuck somehow. They deduce they are acting out the shitty book The Royale and win their way out of the situation. And then they go home, the end. Who cares!

Maybe I am ragging on this episode too hard. It ain't that bad. There is one thing that always kind of bothered me, and its not even particular to this episode but I fucked up and don't have anything else to write about. What is the fucking range on Deanna Troi's powers? How can she telepath all the way down to a god damn planet while she is in orbit? Or sense other people in ships when the Enterprise comes in contact? She is always able to tell how Riker is doing, emotionally of course, what a fucking worthless superpower.

Uh yea, I should move on to Time Squared, butcher that one, and get back on track here. To repeat, go fuck yourselves.