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Star Trek: TNG 513-514 (Patreon)

Published:
2026-07-22 12:00:05
Imported:
2026-07
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Comments

ChiefKC

Star Trek Day!

Robert Cooper

Ron Canada ❤️ One of my favorite character players. Not nearly as great as his DS9 appearance, but always happy to see him. Also, I like how Riker tells the transporter room to beam up the engineers so they don't have to pay an extra for a speaking part.

TalynOne

Data losing a chess game to Troi is a bit dated, made back when humans could defeat computers. Now a day chess engines on phones consistently beat world grand masters. Even Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen said he has little to no chance against modern computer chess engines.

WastedPo

So much of the stuff in "Conundrum" is solid gold, but it all has to do with the crew not remembering who they are. It almost makes me wish that there was no time wasted on the saboteur, and the plot to trick the Enterprise into going to war, which for me was the least interesting part of the episode. Also, about Guinan: Obviously, Whoopi Goldberg isn't always available to film. But I also suspect she conveniently disappears when her presence would foil an episode's plot. One of the most glaring examples is "Clues" when everyone's memory is wiped except for Data. She actually appears in the cold open of that episode (when Picard is pretending to be Dixon Hill) but she's gone for the rest of it where Data is lying to everyone. ... Similarly, I've noticed that in some episodes, they make Troi disappear at certain points to avoid having to explain away why she isn't picking up on deception.

Elisa H.

E14 - I am surprised it took George that long to pick up on the imposter. Maybe he shouldn't play Among Us. -not sure if FakeDuff would have the skill to command the enterprise but maybe 🤷🏽‍♀️ - maybe don't bang your coworkers while having amnesia. For all they knew they were in a relationship with someone else.

SuPaTiLt

Yeah, it took him forever! I really enjoyed watching Simone stare at us like 'when is he gonna notice?'

R. Chang

I think that the main reason MacDuff wouldn’t take the Captain position is that he doesn’t have the knowledge or skillset to pull it off. Like he wouldn’t know enough about ship systems or capabilities or standard procedures.

Brandon

RIP Erich Anderson, who played Kieran MacDuff in 'Conundrum'. He died a little over 2 years ago. Horror fans probably remember him best from Friday the 13: The Final Chapter. He was also in an episode of The Outer Limits along with Brent Spiner. The way MacDuff just shows up at the end of the cold open reminds me of a great episode of Community with Jack Black as the guest star, who just sort of shows up in the study group as if he'd always been there.

Monica Alarcon

Yes of course the Picard maneuver is mentioned in the novels. I don't remember a specific instance but I'm sure about it.. edit. Oh yes!! In Peter David's Imzadi (one of the best Star Trek novels) it's actually a running joke and the future Captain Wesley Crusher also does it...

Gryff

Moab is a place in Colorado. Could that be what youre thinking of?

Maniacalmouse

Riker would never ignore the gaping hole….

Matrim

It’s also a very large bomb.

Matrim

Guy shows up out of nowhere in the cold open, the computer says he’s the executive officer, Riker has been relegated to second officer Meanwhile George: “I wonder if this guy is gonna stick around?”

Jacob

I'm guessing it's the Massive Ordinance Air Blast (MOAB), the largest non nuclear bomb that's been used quite a few times over the past few years by the US and its always in international news stories when it's used.

Andrew

Guinan is on the Enterprise when it's convenient to the plot of the episode. Just like how Troi's abilities come and go. Funny how that works out.

Ian Tellam

True, and it was a product of its time but you can handwave it in various ways if you want: - This is Star Trek 3d chess, with no truly canonical ruleset - it may not be a solvable game like chess, and might not be possible to compute in the same way. For instance chess variants such as Kriegspiel (which has a fog of war mechanic where opponents can't see all the pieces) and Crazy House (which allows players to drop back in captured pieces onto the board) are regularly still won by human players. It's conceivable in the future, with chess being a 'solved' game, that they move to a ruleset that's less computable. - Data may be attempting to approach the game in a more 'human' way, rather than just brute forcing the game (because what would he 'learn' from attempting it this way?) - He correctly anticipates she would win in 7 moves, but then they don't finish the game, so maybe he was just interested in her novel attempt to foil the manoeuvre and could have beaten her anyway had the game continued.

Monica Alarcon

Guinan is permanently on the Enterprise but Whoopi Goldberg is not permanently available. She was probably filming Sister Act 3: Act Harder or something....

Adam Morgan

It's also an ancient kingdom in the Middle East and a person in the Old Testament (the legendary founder of the kingdom, in fact).

REDR58

Died from cancer aged only 67. He was also a novelist.

djKENTO

Yes they do in fact reference Picard's habit or tic of tugging at his shirt in some novels.

The One True Chris

"She's the person in Pretty Woman who wouldn't let Julia Roberts shop!" Focus... :)

REDR58

The Masterpiece Society Again, the Richter scale has not been used since the 1970s when it was replaced with the Moment Magnitude Scale (MMS)... I wish the thing with Geordi and his outrage at someone deciding he should never have been born because he was blind was not conveyed in such a heavy-handed manner. I can understand his point of view and outrage, but theoretical “what if” questions aren’t that compelling to me and he wouldn’t be around to debate it if things had gone differently, so who cares? Instead, I think it would have been more dramatically effective if one of the *colonists* was the one to appreciate that “a blind man’s appliance to help him see saved our society” and so forth. Perhaps if Martin had been the one to say it rather than Geordi. John Snyder, who played Conor, previously played the Romulan Bochra seen in “The Enemy” in season 3, when Geordi was trapped on a planet and ended up working with the Romulan. Little do they know when they move the core fragment it eventually drifted towards a distant planet where a society of billions there couldn’t stop it. Sad, really.

Patrick - Excelsior

In 514, I always wondered in the alien's name being MacDuff was a tongue in cheek reference to his being a MacGuffin. I don't know if its quite the gaping hole in the plot line. Putting himself as Captain might have created other issues. On a personal level even Worf, when he thought he was Captain, found himself obeying Picard. On a habitual level the crew listens to Picard. Better to make himself the "kings advisor" and use the inherint loyalty to Picard and try to use Picards nature agianst them. If he made himself Captain they would instinctively feel nothing for this person and have no loyalty if he was countermanded. Which is what happened in the end when he tried to overide the Captain using Starfleets orders. Of course we know the reason is they wanted to hide thier MacGuffin. Makinh him appear as a new crewman of the week. If they put him as Captain and Picard as 2nd, the auduience would have realized he was an intruder too early.

KnittingHaven

Before The Masterpiece Society I only knew the Aaron actor as the pimp from Crocodile Dundee. That's probably still in the back of your mind somewhere. It is really hard to accept him as this great leader after he was so good at playing such a bad character.

Adam Morgan

I think the exchange between Picard and Riker at the end of Conundrum is intended to establish that both sides are technologically equal. McDuff's device is therefore presumably not their own. Maybe he found it, or bought it, or whatever -- that part isn't important to the plot.

Michael Daw

LeVar Burton is just so gorgeous. It's a shame he has to stay hidden behind that thing. And I love that scene in the turbolift between Picard and Deanna. One of the best I can remember. When I saw that the amnesia episode was next, I was thinking "Ugh, I guess I'll watch this boring episode first". But I had clearly forgotten how fantastic Masterpiece Society is.

David N

You never actually see a Lysian so you could assume they are different from other life forms we have seen and it could be that whatever mind beam the Satarran use is ineffective on them. It also took a while for the beam to have an effect on the crew so its only really effective if you dont blow them up the moment you recognize whats going on. You then have to infiltrate what ever vessel you are attacking to ensure that the new orders are obeyed without question. All of these could be neutralized with a fire on sight approach, automated sensors calibrated to detect Satarrans or even a simple notebook that says "If you lose you memories its these guys and they are lieing". The weapon is only really powerful if you are ignorant of it or do not take the threat of it seriously (as Picard did).

John Suire

“Isn’t Guinan on the ship permanently” is in the same league as “How fast is the Enterprise’s warp drive?” According to a writer of some sci-fi series: It moves at the speed of plot! (summarized) 😉

REDR58

That and a war we have never heard of before and Duff Beer’s super bloodthirsty attitude.

Michael Daw

Patient: "Do you have come clothes I could wear, until I find the swimming pool?" Crusher: "Nah, you're fine like that."

Michael Daw

That's what I was thinking. They can push their luck... but not THAT far.

REDR58

I haven't read a TNG book since the early 1990s. I've heard of this one, but never read it. I'll have to look it up!

REDR58

Conundrum Send Ro to the brig! Why don’t they remember the Picard was in the center chair? That and the rank pips should answer any questions of who is in command. Worf's Baldric is not convincing enough! I’m disappointed there was no follow up with Kristin (Liz Vassey), the injured diver. Ensign Kane (Erick V. Weiss), the confused guy in his quarters, will show up again in a particularly notable episode… We see Riker playing trombone in a few previous episodes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPqcS-Fismo Did Son of Duff go around collecting all the personal photographs of people that might’ve been displayed in their quarters? I really wish they didn’t use all those closeups of Fudd looking all sneaky.

fforw

Simone's constant trouble with recalling episodes makes for a total plausible deniability. Until observed, she is both deceiving George about her knowledge and really doesn't remember anything to the point of George suspecting her to just claim to have seen any Star Trek. What an epic prank..

TalynOne

When they're reading the crew manifest : Kieran MacDuff, First Officer, William T. Riker : Second Officer. George: Sounds right to me, MacDuff has always been first officer. Did the green beam also affect George's memories?

TalynOne

The green beam also affected George's memories.

Marcus Hicks

So in the novel "Dark Mirror", there is a mention of The Picard Maneuver, with respect to his pulling down of his top. That's the only time I recall seeing it, but its been a while since I last read any Star Trek novels.

Matt O'Keefe

I am glad George feels basically the same as I do about that idea of love transcending shit and other woo woo BS as I do said in the movie. I love the movie otherwise.

REDR58

But it’s delightful!

REDR58

I’m so happy when they recognize guest stars from other things.

Marcus Hicks

As I mentioned above, in Dark Mirror, Picard is constantly chiding himself for trying to pull down the much briefer Mirror Universe uniforms. I don't believe the novel mentions The Picard Maneuver by name, however.

Cc Decc

Riker is just a dog. :p

parker469a

If you guys are going to keep bring up Hannibal Lecter then I'm going to need you to start watching the three season TV series with Mads Mikkelsen after this season of Soprano's is over. For some reason that show feels a lot darker than any of the movies I watched.

gfixler

@Jacob — I didn't know it had a fancy, scientific name. I've always known it by what I see now is the colloquial term, "Mother Of All Bombs", which is what I presumed George was trying to think of.

Phosphorus

Or he read about Massive Ordinance Air Blast/Mother Of All Bombs?

Phosphorus

"Just worry that if we both start forgetting..." "Welcome to SeniorBinge, where we forget the beginning of the TV episode before we get to the end of it." Register the website today?

Simon Pegged Me

Plot holes aside, I enjoyed this episode or, more precisely, one aspect of the show. I loved the little exploration of the bridge crew's personalities and how well suited they are for their professional roles. I thought the way they handled Ro Lauren in particular was brilliant. In Conundrum, they showed us what Ensign Ro would be like if, somehow, she could exist without her trauma, and it turns out, she would be the Starfleet ideal for a junior officer. She's effortlessly brilliant at her job and happy-go-lucky in her free time. I loved this Ro. I also loved how they handled Worf. Yes, Worf is a Klingon warrior and ready to die in battle at the drop of a hat. But he is also from a noble family, and he accepts the leadership role of nobility as easily. However, as he told his son, Alexander, in a previous episode, when he found himself an orphan, exiled from everything Klingon, he still retained his honor. When memory loss robs him of his Klingon culture again, it's his honor that prevents him from participating in a mutiny. The Satarran guessed correctly that Worf would want to cover himself in glory in battle, but he got it all wrong when he thought Worf was just a heeled brute waiting to be let off his chain and serve his master. Worf is a warrior poet, not an unprincipled berserker. Michael Dorn's best moment, the one that best summed this up, was when he apologized to Captain Picard for assuming command of the ship when that honor was not his. He made Worf look genuinely ashamed. It was great character development. And then there's Riker. Deanna spends the episode tell him that they may be something special between them. Then, she shows him the book as further evidence that they may be in love. Will doesn't think about this romantically. He doesn't say, "Wow, stripped of our past and memories, we still manage to find each other, our soul mates." Instead, Laren Ro walks in and he thinks, "I'm going to have a three way, aren't I?" I am prepared to be proved wrong on this. I've been wrong before and it felt a lot like this.

John

George, are you seriously disappointed with a 12-year-old's piano performance??

Cinebinge

no. i was disappointed that a fictional tv show didnt mix in a more complex piece of music to a fictional character pretending to play the piano. since fictional tv shows can just add any music to any scene.

Joe Concepts

Very surprising considering how much George analyzes things usually! 😁

gfixler

Yeah, it always made sense to me, because the memory wipe isn't perfect. Troi felt a connection to Riker, for example. I think from his [people's?] perspective, it made more sense to keep people in their roles, because it was too dangerous to say the captain was some other role now, but still feels all the feelings of a commanding officer. They likely didn't know exactly how it would all play out in practice, so eliminating variables—just keep everyone who they are underneath—was safer.

gfixler

Simone once again with the phenomenal recognition powers.

Thall

I don't know many thinks but I am incredibly sure I know that George will absolutely adore DS9.

Doug

This exactly, you can't command a ship when you've no idea how it operates.

Deagor

Simone's face during all of episode 14 as George the usually super suspicious plot savvy person completely glosses over the pink elephant in the room was killing me.

John

These are two worthwhile episodes, I was curious if anyone has looked into Troi's body count. We frequently talk about Riker and his "friendliness" toward others but I can think of several romantic relationships between Troi and other non-command crew members

Runes N Raccoons

Also the early 90s was the peak of Whoopi's movie career. She was only on the show because she specifically asked for a role (she was a huge fan of TOS).

Angela D. Mitchell

I love "Conundrum," and it's one I missed the first time around! Really fun watching everyone try to figure themselves out. George, I disagree that it's a plot hole. I think Simone is right and Macduff had to keep things as close to reality as possible. Especially if he wanted his deception to last -- he couldn't just say "I'm the Captain" when he didn't have any ability to pretend to be the Captain (or Picard) for any length of time. The best lie is the one closest to the truth, and that's what he did. It almost worked. I loved the awkwardness of Riker and Ro and Deanna, and I'm with Simone -- he was a jerk for going back to Ro when he had that moment (acknowledged by both) with Deanna. For all he knew, he was cheating with Ro on Deanna as a current wife or girlfriend! So yeah, he was wrong for that. So I loved their final confrontation, Ro's dry acknowledgement of their tension having a sexual aspect, and everyone just moving on. Deanna was justifiably cool in her dismissal without being a jerk. I love the actor who plays Macduff -- Erich Anderson. He was one of my favorite character actors. He was wonderful on the show "Thirtysomething," and was also Felicity's dad in "Felicity." He passed away too soon in 2024.

Angela D. Mitchell

I completely agree. This is how I saw it as well. I said it in a separate comment, but the best lie to maintain is the one closest to the truth. Macduff couldn't just pretend to be the Captain -- he had to do things in a more subtle way that still fit with who people were.

Angela D. Mitchell

Simone was especially fun this episode -- I loved how Macduff would smile to himself -- and Simone would glance at us like, "DID YOU SEE THAT?" Fun times.