Yikes, I had to review two of the worst episodes of season six! Oh well, at least it’s not Rascals or Aquiel. I’ve soldiered on anyway and reviewed this in a relatively short amount of time.
Lessons
Lessons is not a good episode. Picard falls in love again, to a stellar cartographer/musician this time. We see Picard playing his Ressican flute for the first time since The Inner Light, and I can’t say that’s a good thing. There’s a planetary emergency that requires her specifically to be there (what are the odds). We think she dies, turns out she’s alive, then she leaves the ship. Fine by me.
Do you know why this episode got made? The idea for it had been around since season five, but nobody wanted to do it. The only reason it was made was because the writers couldn’t come up with any more ideas for episodes. They were scraping the bottom of the barrel, so to speak, and this is the result. Check out my other comments on this bummer of an episode in my full review.
The Chase
The Chase is a better episode, but not by much. Picard’s old archaeology mentor visits and tries to get him to leave the Enterprise and come with him on an expedition for several months. When he refuses the guy takes off and gets himself killed. Picard then takes up the expedition himself. The Chase consists of finding DNA fragments from dozens of worlds which, against all odds, have something in common that forms an ancient computer program. Turns out the Cardassians, Klingons and Romulans are all after it too, and culminates in a disappointing ending.
This is Star Trek’s attempt to explain why all the aliens are humanoid, as I’m sure many of you have figured out. This episode’s inspiration for the plot was Carl Sagan’s book Contact, and trying to marry these two concepts resulted in this less-than-stellar outing for the crew. A cast member from this episode is still alive and kicking at 106 years old! There is a deleted scene for this episode as well. Check out my full review if you’re interested in reading more.
Whew, got those over with! My next two reviews will include a wonderful episode, Frame of Mind, and the moderately interesting Suspicions. See you then!
Saga of the Jasonite 