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Star Trek: TNG 4x21 Full Reaction! (Patreon)

Published:
2025-09-06 17:00:09
Imported:
2026-06

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Star Trek TNG 4×21 Full Reaction

Full Reaction You are now able to stream the full reaction directly from this website. Alternatively, you can download it to your computer using the button underneath the video player. You must provide your own footage to watch alongside the full reactions.

Comments

Geordie Joe

One of the best episodes in season 4. Norah Satie has a Dolores Umbridge vibe about her.

Thomas Corp

Good to be back with the Next Gen reactions. Solid first reaction following the break, yet before the break, which, well, that’s the way it crumbles, cookie-wise. The “merry man” line has been on something of a 33 loop for me as well this past month, along with your absurdly delightful reaction to said line, Jess. Lots to say about this one; probably have to split this one up some. Got the aggression going on your end, which I encourage you to “Use your aggressive feelings, Jess! Let the hate FLOW through you!” We return with one of my chapter and verse episodes, the fourth one so far. I also consider this my favorite Worf episode, as he’s the one who has the most pronounced arc of the episode. Michael, for his part, likewise lists this one as one of his favorite episodes, if not his favorite. I heard Jeri Taylor said she was proud of this episode. Solid start with the traitorous Klingon, J’Dan. Figured you’d be slightly horrified by the manner in which J’Dan surreptitiously acquired and delivered the information to the Romulans. Loved your reaction to Worf’s justified response to the attempts to sway him to his side. Praise beyond belief to our big guest star of the week, a statement I’m definitely reiterating next week. In this episode, we have the magnificent Jean Simmons who delivers such a powerhouse of a performance. Jonathan getting to direct the legendary Jean being a significant highlight for him, leading him too listing this episode favorably. FANTASTIC praise you give Jean for her performance as Satie via your hatred, your anger toward Satie. The cheese has slid off Satie’s cracker, which, well, she IS Ophelia. As you said, no particularly prominent red flag. Even in rewatching, Jean hits that sweet balance of very subtly showing the early signs of Satie’s villainous nature whilst still wearing the mask of virtue. The lack of leeway offered by you does fit here. Simple logic should have put an end to her witch hunt, her drumhead trials, yet she persisted, thus no matter her motives or backstory, she was lost, and your anger was well placed. The rare occasion when an improbable coincidence occurs. And it makes perfect sense why it is not initially believed that it is a coincidence. Yet once the coincidence, however improbable, is revealed, that should be the end of it, as Geordi and Data did the work, and found there to be no sabotage. Thank Christ that Satie did not go after Geordi, as I think you’d have needed a new television following that. And it’s noted that J’Dan having help is never entirely disproven, and Picard notes though difficult, it wouldn’t be entirely impossible for him to have acted alone, offering a nice ambiguity that Satie just latched onto to support her paranoia. This episode is, of course, meant to be an analogy for the Red Scare. After 9/11, War on Terror hysteria and paranoia becomes a theme that’s read into this for understandable reasons. Factor in the political landscape of the last ten years. It repeats again and again and again and keeps this episode disturbingly relevant. Interestingly enough, though, as mentioned, the intent is to be analogous to the Red Scare, Satie herself is based less on McCarthy, and more on James Jesus Angleton. If you happen to be unaware who that is: CIA Counterintelligence Chief from years ago who essentially became consumed by rampant paranoia after learning the full scope of the actions of Kim Philby and the others of the Cambridge Five. Man became so paranoid that he accused Nixon and Kissinger of being Soviet moles. Leads to poor Simon Tarses, played by the terrific Spencer Garrett, to get caught in the crosshairs. As you and Picard note, him lying about his grandfather isn’t itself the crime of the century. I mean, I got a grandparent that I don’t talk about much if at all, that doesn’t make me an enemy of the state. It is how Satie justifies it, and it taps into Worf’s prejudice, making him an unwitting ally. It also has deeply uncomfortable parallels with the One-Drop Rule, which, depending on how certain polls with the film reactions go, we will inevitably revisit that topic. We both ADORE Picard’s words to Worf there. We also LOVED the scene where Satie notes Picard objecting on the Betazoid intuition, despite him having the brilliance of Deanna. And it is great that although Picard concedes the perceived hypocrisy, he notes, as do you, that there are the clear distinctions, and it’s not so cut and dry. Loved your own words on Deanna being fully aware of the complexities of the soup of emotions. And Picard is man enough to acknowledge that he may have dealt in absolutes once or twice, and he endeavors to do better. And it speaks to Picard being the wonderful man that he is by his going to bat for Simon. You know GODDAMN WELL that Picard spoke with Beverly about Simon, and that she most CERTAINLY spoke to the young man’s character, and Picard knows that if she vouches for someone, that’s more than good enough for him. And even setting that aside, Simon is a man under his command, a member of the crew, and he will NOT let the poor man suffer punishment for crimes that he did not commit.

Thomas Corp

Bringing us to the big scene of the episode: Picard on trial. Knew you’d have the strong response to that. All supervised by Admiral Thomas Henry played by the quite underrated Earl Billings having an entire meal of a performance all without one word of dialogue. It’s fantastic. The entire scene may possibly be my favorite Picard moment. If not number one, it’s top three, easy. Patrick perfectly sells Picard’s opening speech. Satie is undeterred, and we see she takes the, admittedly, on paper, suspect fact that Picard violated the prime directive nine times and runs with it. And she shows how she’s interpreting facts to support her own conclusions, well shown by the recalling the events of Data’s Day, fully and comfortably ignoring the context and the fact that the Enterprise really would have been screwed. Worf himself breaks through the fog of lies and speaks in passionate defense for his captain, and his “allies” turn on him. Love Picard reigning Worf in by saying the word, “Lieutenant” yet his tone says, “Mister Worf.” Excellent parenthetical. He indulges the moment later when there are chills in the moment when Satie goes after Picard by bringing up the encounter with the Borg, and Wolf 359, how Patrick perfectly sells Picard’s response that on paper is the calm response, whilst the tone in his voice has that venomous edge to it. I should have known that your reaction would shatter expectations. If looks could kill, Satie would have been murdered by thine own GLORIOUS look of outrage, that one was beautiful. And it is here that Sir Patrick Stewart delivers one of his very best moments of his career when Picard quotes Satie’s father’s words. Naturally, this scene circulates a lot. That part, “The first time ANY man’s freedom is trodden on, we are all damaged.” is especially resonant. The whole goddamn thing just made me weep this time round, and again upon at long last seeing your perfect reaction to the historic speech. And it works so well how it feels like, out of kindness, Picard was holding off on saying what he said, and only when left with no choice, does he use those words. And the moment triggers Satie’s breakdown, starting with “How DARE YOU!!” followed by your PERFECT response of yelling, “HOW DARE HE!?!?” and Jean gives the powerhouse performance. Satie’s paranoia becomes prominently on display as she makes it clear that she will bring down Picard, and she knows that she’ll be victorious when she gets to the strawberries, see, that’s where she has him. She is very determined after Picard made clear that he saw her as bright, shining, perfect seeming, all gold, with purple spots, then looked behind the paint, as did you, and determined her to be a lie, and chose to show her up for what she really is. She remains undeterred as she’s convinced that she, like her father before her, is someone uses words like honor, code, loyalty. She uses these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. Whereas Picard, as she sees it, uses them as a punchline. And she’s aghast at him having the position he has, no doubt already making the notes in her reports, practically bellowing, “And HE gets to be a Starfleet Captain!? WHAT A SICK JOKE!!!” Love how during all of it, Picard just looks disappointed, not happy, not triumphant, he just feels sorry for Satie. Contrast to yourself cheering on Satie bringing about her own destruction which becomes the forgone conclusion when Henry has enough and gets up and leaves. Henry, head of Starfleet security, a man who gets paid to be suspicious when he’s got nothing to be suspicious about, decides she’s gone too far, and it’s then when Satie realizes how screwed she is, clamming up more than Ed Begley did when E. G. Marshall told him to sit down and not open his mouth again. Quite enjoyed your encouragement on that one. Love Gates providing Beverly with the perfect look that echoes our thoughts of “It’s that damn Jean-Luc Picard! He’s SO HOT RIGHT NOW!!” Sadly, there is the question of what became of Simon, and writers have tackled that. More cynical interpretations say that this still costs him his career. Others go with the thought of though given the reprimand and suffering the setback, he ultimately comes out ok. I guarantee fanfiction covers it. Love how there is also the ambiguity of what happens to Satie, and I know you’re in favor of her career being scrutinized and catalogued in minute vivid detail. We both have such a shared response to Worf’s contrition, and Picard offering the sage wisdom. The perfect final scene of this perfect episode that has now yielded such a tremendously PERFECT reaction from you, Jess. This one was SO well worth the wait. Thank you so, so very much for this beauty of a reaction. It has meant a great deal to me, Jess.

Ian Smith

Jean Simmons (Satie) had been a huge Hollywood star in the 40s and 50s, and was a superb actress. They were fortunate that she was such a huge ST fan, otherwise the producers would probably never have secured her for the role; and, my goodness,but she was remarkable. When she shouts that shattering and final line: "I've taken down bigger men than you,Picard!!" her performance matches anything that Patrick Stewart has ever done.

Ryan

If there's any questions about how huge the show was by now, wrangling a guest appearance by bona fide golden age movie star Jean Simmons kills them. And she fully earns her paycheck here, starting out with just the barest peeks at her true nature like you predictably picked up on, and then slowly pulling the layers back until her true self is on display to everyone. The one downside is there was no way the show was ever getting her back, so there goes any hope for Satie just getting to be a full villain who can be taken down way harder. Strange that Worf goes straight to violence at the attempted bribe, he's usually such a merry man. And it's a great move by Jeri Taylor, who already made a huge splash by creating the Cardassians, to have this whole part of the story wrapped up so soon and leave the question of where it could go from here. Maybe Satie could pick up on the vibes between Picard and Crusher and ask Beverly "How many times does a man need to win you?" But instead we have to pivot to Simon Tarses, and the discovery that he's a snail rather than an oyster. Spencer Garrett is really incredible here, instantly earning your sympathy and getting you invested in bringing Satie down. He's kept up a steady career ever since without ever quite breaking into major recognition, though I get the sense that's how he like it (one really shocking role was Sean Hannity in Bombshell, about the Fox News sexual harassment scandal). And Jeri Taylor confirmed it was a deliberate creative choice to not make clear what ends up happening to him, though for what it's worth a couple novels portrayed him as getting to stay in Starfleet, though with a reprimand on his record that slowed down his career for a while. Another very smart writing choice to nip any mystery about the sabotage in the bud and reveal the thing just broke on its own. Fuck, even in the future nothing works. So the episode gets to use its time fully devoted to Satie's growing witchhunt, and it wasn't much of a surprise to see her get so much on your bad side. This all deserves a whipping way more than stealing a gold chain (though if you factor in the brownface for that role, I guess it comes out even). I actually got pretty excited when Picard is called to trial, thinking "Oh, you just poked the bear." And what a shock, she brings up the subject sure to hurt him the most, which makes it all the more satisfying when Picard throws her beloved father's own words back in her face. Because of course, getting Ophelia to rant about her father is never going to end well for her. Earl Billings is also great here as Major Thomas, never saying a word but always making his reaction clear, until finally he just turns his back on her like she's Ed Begley Sr. and you can practically hear him say "Sit down, you're rocking the boat." Sometimes you just have to bow to the majority, and I'll join everyone else in calling this one of the show's all time best episodes. I'm always down for something that seriously questions the values of the Federation itself and how it might not always live up to its own ideals, something the franchise these days could stand to do a lot more of. Peacemaker, what a joke. And bless Jeri Taylor for having the guts to have both Picard and Worf acknowledge they don't always fall on the right side of this themselves, especially how she's able to avoid making Worf the strawman for Satie's side and keeping everything he says feeling in character. And this reaction is everything I was hoping for.

Josef Schiltz

The first time that i saw Jean Simmons was as Estella in Great Expectations. She certainly does not disappoint here! Seeing those two giants, Jean Simmons and Patrick Stewart in these embattling scenes was really quite a treat. My mother didn't recognise her at first until I said. She missed the guest names at the beginning and it wasn't until I said that's Estella from Great expectations, the one will the young John Mills, her attack eyebrows shot up - she had mighty eyebrows! "What? No!" Thankfully, we had subtitles by them and she could follow the stories without me having to verbally amplify any of the story. When Nora Satie said, "I've taken down bigger men than you, Picard." she was aghast and that was greeted with a loud "HUH!" of disapproval.

Thomas Corp
>>186400254

The mighty acting of the two giants of Jean and Patrick is worth the price of admission alone. Those are the fun times I had with Dad, and it still happens sometimes with Mom where you have to point out who a certain someone is in the cast. Remember one time Dad recognized Sterling Hayden in a movie but couldn’t place him, and when he finally gave up trying figure it out and asked me where he knew Sterling from, I quoted The Godfather, at which point Dad instantly made the connection. For Jean, Spartacus is a good go to for me in giving people a frame of reference as to who she is. Watching with the subtitles is the default way to watch anything for me anymore; helps maintain focus. Sounds like the aghast loud disapproval of “HUH!” would perfectly compliment Jess yelling “HOW DARE HE!?!?” during the big final moment that Jean had in this one.

Geordie Joe

"I am not a merry man" Bit of foreshadowing in the intro there Jess, given how much rage Norah Satie caused you during this reaction. It's a shame Crewman Tarses didn't have you in his corner during the trial. I would have loved to have seen you taking her down a peg.

Thomas Corp
>>186467184

Simon would have fared well with Jess in his corner. Seeing Jess take down Satie would be grand; I’d have beer and food for the occasion, maybe a nice gin and tonic or two. Keep thinking that Satie is fortunate to have been foiled before she could go after Geordi. One can only imagine the FURY Jess would have had on that one.