Marissa and Lisa wrap up their first-ever season of Star Trek: The Next Generation with a final batch that’s emotional, messy, unsettling, and very much still finding its footing.

Season 1 ends not with a neat bow, but with loss, paranoia, time fractures, and a warning that much bigger threats are coming.

🖖 Episodes Discussed

“Skin of Evil”

A tar-like entity, a senseless death, and the sudden loss of Tasha Yar. The crew confronts grief without meaning, Data uses empathy as strategy, and Starfleet learns that not every death has a lesson.

“We’ll Always Have Paris”

Time fractures, Picard revisits a long-avoided romantic regret, and Data becomes the key to repairing reality. High-concept sci-fi meets awkward emotional closure.

“Conspiracy”

Starfleet paranoia turns into full-blown body horror. Parasitic aliens infiltrate command, trust collapses, and the season briefly becomes a 1980s sci-fi thriller—with bugs.

“The Neutral Zone”

Cryogenically frozen 20th-century humans wake up in a post-scarcity future just as the Romulans re-enter the picture. Old values clash with new realities, and Picard warns that bigger forces are on the horizon.

🌌 Season 1 Takeaways

• The show is finding its voice—even when it stumbles
• Chosen family matters
• The Prime Directive is the backbone of this world
• Grief, ethics, and power are recurring themes
• Data, Geordi, and Worf are just getting started
• Season 2 promises higher stakes and sharper focus

Season 1 complete.
Season 2… engage. 🖖

Marissa and Lisa continue their first-time watch of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and for the first time… things are starting to feel normal. Or maybe they’re just acclimating to the chaos.

This batch blends classic sci-fi ethics, early anti-drug messaging, and some standout character development—especially for Worf and Geordi.

🖖 Episodes Discussed

“Home Soil”

Terraforming goes wrong when the crew discovers intelligent silicon-based life. A clear anti-colonization message, a memorable insult (“ugly bags of mostly water”), and another Data-as-elite-diplomat win.

“Coming of Age”

Wesley takes the Starfleet Academy entrance exam—and doesn’t make it. A surprisingly thoughtful look at failure, fear, mentorship, and Picard finally opening up about his own setbacks.

“Heart of Glory”

Worf confronts Klingon culture, loyalty, and what it means to choose Starfleet as his family. Includes rogue Klingons, death rituals, primal screaming, and one very definitive ladder fight.

“The Arsenal of Freedom”

An automated weapons system tries to sell itself by nearly killing everyone. Geordi takes command, thinks creatively under pressure, and proves exactly why he belongs in the captain’s chair.

“Symbiosis”

Two planets locked in an exploitative drug economy force Picard into a brutal Prime Directive decision. Heavy 1980s “Just Say No” energy, moral discomfort, and a very awkward Wesley drug talk.

🌌 Big Takeaways

• Colonization and exploitation are recurring villains
• Failure doesn’t disqualify you from leadership
• Chosen family keeps showing up
• Geordi La Forge is an elite crisis leader
• The Prime Directive is… complicated
• Season 1 is finding its footing

Until next time—
Make it so. 🖖

Marissa and Lisa continue their first-time watch of Star Trek: The Next Generation, tackling one of Season 1’s strangest batches yet. From evil android siblings to questionable gender politics and a planet that kidnaps children, these episodes raise big questions—even when the execution gets… very 1980s.

🖖 Episodes Discussed

“Datalore”

Data meets his manipulative brother Lore, forcing questions about humanity, ethics, and chosen family. Also: Wesley is right, gets yelled at anyway, and we officially hate “Shut up, Wesley.”

“Angel One”

A matriarchal planet offers peak 80s cringe and a lesson in why “gender reversal” isn’t feminism. Riker’s wardrobe (and behavior) does not help.

“11001001”

Binary beings hijack the Enterprise to save their civilization while Riker beta-tests the holodeck in the horniest way possible. Surprisingly tender themes of trust, forgiveness, and asking for help.

“Too Short a Season”

An aging admiral uses a de-aging drug with tragic results. Dry episode, big questions about power, pride, and why Starfleet won’t let people retire.

“When the Bough Breaks”

A “utopian” society kidnaps the Enterprise’s children to solve infertility. Wesley leads a peaceful kid rebellion, myths fall apart, and we’re left thinking about resistance, survival, and letting go of comforting stories.

🌌 Big Takeaways

• Chosen family matters
• AI ethics were already haunting sci-fi in 1987
• Patriarchy (and bad allegories) age poorly
• Small acts of resistance can force change
• Things are impossible… until they aren’t

Until next time—
Make it so. 🖖